Ascension to Pokemon Mastery-Rewrite
by The Omniarch
Summary: An Amourshipping Soul Bond Fic, features godlike/champion level/maximum quintessential control Ash, with Pokemon of overwhelming power. Not your everyday godlike fic guys, though this story in particular has received mixed reviews for some reason or another. All stories subject to changes on a whim and in constant state of flux.
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I don't think I need to tell you all I don't own Pokemon, but I will anyways. I make no profit from this whatsoever._

_Warning: Story rated M for a reason; this is only for mature audiences, and features lemons, epic battles, adult themes, and other such things that some viewers may find offensive. This story is not for the faint of heart, there are dark themes, murders, character death, and many themes that may be unsuitable for younger audiences. Discretion is strongly advised._

Chapter One: A Champion In Disguise

Kanto, the Orange Archipelago, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova, each of these regions had their own cultures, customs, and rich history. A great many people have visited one or more of these vast landmasses, all of them spread out across an even vaster ocean, separated by hundreds of miles of saltwater, and of course the countless Pokemon that made the seas their home. Many of these people carried remarkable fables and legends from their homeland, spreading stories far and wide, and while some of these tales were local, others were known all over the world.

The tales that inspired the most awe in the modern day Pokeearth were the recent happenings all across the world; many of the legendary Pokemon were acting up in their respective regions in recent years. Some were less terrifying to behold in all their rage, whereas others, the ungodly legends of old, could have simply blinked and shattered the world like an eggshell. The incident in Kanto where a freak storm blanketed almost the entire world and threatened to kill off the entire human race was noteworthy, but then there were other catastrophes following it in a seemingly never-ending barrage, like when the titans of fire, ice, and lightning threatened to unleash Armageddon and flood the entire planet. A lot of people had seen the news report, yet thankfully a lot of the world population still remained ignorant. If it wasn't for the freak crystal structures appearing in Green Field, the incident in that Johto Forest that according to rumors involved a Celebi and a Suicune, the massive, inexplicable tidal wave that threatened to drown all of Altomare, and at least eleven other major incidents involving legendary Pokemon, the world may have remained ignorant.

As it was though, these incidents were now known all over the world, and people were starting to talk about the possibility of the world ending. As scary as it was to accept, the human race realized that if not for the actions of one brave young man, the earth would have fallen to ruin at the very first major crisis. People everywhere whispered his name, those who hadn't personally witnessed his countless heroic egresses still heard of it on the news, or heard it on the radio, or directly from the many people involved in these horrific doomsday scenarios.

This person was now known all around, and though he tried to disappear into the woodwork time and time again, people kept on badgering him for autographs, asking him when he planned on saving the world again, and some of the more extreme fanatics even started dubbing him the Chosen One, a legendary title some believed only the Mythical Champion of Arceus deserved. All legendary Pokemon now respected him immensely, and some of them even joined his roster of over six hundred different kinds of Pokemon, all of them now level 100 and gods among their species.

The name Ash Ketchum was one more famous than just about any other person on the planet now. Ash and his starter Pokemon had set off on their journey nearly six years ago, a legendary Pikachu that commanded respect among electric types everywhere, be they legendary or otherwise. Despite their fame now, things hadn't always been this crazy for the dynamic duo, and though Ash did his best to smile for the crowds, the cameras, and tried to act like everything was cool, he would have been all too happy to get away for a good long while, but it seemed like his ongoing journey was fraught with fame, fortune, and power, all of which he once craved though never to this extent. The fortune and power were great, he had no problems with them whatsoever, and wouldn't stop until he was the undisputed world champion and amassed infinite power as an aspiring Pokemon Master, but the fame, well he could definitely do without so much of that.

It wasn't that he went looking for trouble with living legends, but trouble seemed to have an innate ability at finding him. If he had to do it all over again, he would have treaded a little more cautiously and not let his name float around so much. It wasn't that the fame was necessarily a bad thing; it's just that people wouldn't leave him alone, and though he always optimistically tried to let the craze die down, people just couldn't seem to get enough of him.

Desperate for a bit of a break from the media, Ash had jumped at the chance when Alexa suggested he visited the Kalos region, one so far from the other main regions that it was actually refreshingly unfamiliar. News of the other regions traveled slowly in this part of the world, and Ash was pleasantly surprised to discover that upon arriving, his name wasn't nearly as well known. The Kalos region was beautiful, he could sense the romantic atmosphere all around him and if it wasn't for the fact that he needed to keep moving, this might not be a bad place to settle down, maybe even find a girlfriend and start a family.

His journey had been absolutely amazing, and despite some of the less endearing aspects of his fame, Ash took every opportunity to help people, to take time out of his busy schedule to give others a leg up. Unfortunately, it wouldn't last long, Ash's name had already been known pretty much worldwide, and with what happened in Lumiose city a week ago, when he saved a rampaging Garchomp from his pursuing lifelong enemies Team Rocket, he knew it was only a matter of time before his fame became too great for him to escape it anymore.

Still, for the time being, Ash was feeling content. He had made some new friends or as Pikachu would say, he picked up some new strays, as Ash had a habit of doing whenever he arrived in a new region. Clement and Bonnie were brother and sister; both of them very smart, both very kind and loyal. Having gotten to know them a little better the last week, Ash had forged a budding bromance with the inventor and had come to see Bonnie as the little sister he never had.

Having been unaccustomed to displays of affection in his early years, now Ash didn't hesitate to reciprocate any hugs the little energetic, eight year old girl gave him. Journeying with the blonde haired siblings was proving to be just as rewarding as traveling with any of his previous companions. Clement was a little shy, and tended to double over in embarrassment when his little sister proposed to some girl they didn't even know, all for the sake of finding him a dependable wife to look after him in her stead. Bonnie meanwhile; was direct, honest, and didn't hesitate to speak her mind. She didn't get embarrassed, though from time to time she displayed a surprising level of maturity that threw even Ash for a loop.

She still had that youthful innocence, untainted by the chills and thrills of puberty and seeing a boy in a romantic light for the first time. It was something Ash hadn't actually learned to do until he was almost 13 years old, when he journeyed with May and her brother Max in the Hoenn region. Now at 16; Ash could no longer play the dense idiot card when certain female friends in his journey tried to move in on him. Bonnie had even tried getting Ash to open up on whether or not he had a girlfriend already, among other things, and when he said he didn't, she frowned in confusion, completely missing the misty, wistful expression that crossed the older boy's face as the image of a certain Bluenette crossed his mind.

His journey in Kalos was already off to a fantastic start, during the Garchomp incident, he had befriended and caught a level 30 Froakie, which just happened to have its exceedingly rare protein ability, not that such things surprised Ash anymore, who had become accustomed to catching Pokemon that were some of the best of their species. Having heard about the legends of the Chosen One, Ash often wondered if the God Pokemon Arceus really did choose him, if there really was such a thing as a champion of the gods.

Of course, it wouldn't be too much of a shocker, considering all the other extraordinary and impossible things that have happened in Ash's life. Not only was he now an Elite Level trainer, a rank which enabled him to carry up to 15 Pokemon in his party instead of the usual 6, but he had faced off against and prevailed over some of the most powerful trainers in the world, all through the strength of his Pokemon and the bond they all shared.

He wouldn't get the final increase to 30 Pokemon until he beat a regional champion or any other champion level trainer, but Ash wasn't too worried, a team of 15 was more than sufficient to prepare him for almost any situation. With that said, he was still gunning for the top just as fiercely as he had ever done, the only difference now was that he had some other priorities as well. On his way to Santalune City with his new friends, Ash and Froakie worked together to capture a young but talented Gale Wings Fletchling, proving once again that Ash Ketchum was the luckiest trainer on the planet. He always captured Pokemon with their best abilities every time, Pokemon who would go on to become deified members of their species, and assimilate an all-powerful set of stats and tap into their entire move pools.

Currently, with his new Pokeball containing Fletchling attached to his belt, Ash and Pikachu were walking up the winding paths leading through Santalune forest with a determined air about them, the battle worn electric mouse sitting on his favorite perch, Ash's very own shoulder. The forest was one of the largest in all of Kalos, going on for hundreds of miles in nearly every direction. Bird and bug Pokemon either chirped or crawled over the forest floor, the dead leaves crunching beneath them in the tranquil environment. He and his current team had been training in this tropical forest for a good several hours now. Though he still retained the same dishevelled raven colored hair and the z shaped scars he'd been born with, Ash's body had greatly matured. Due to traveling all the time, he had a toned, muscular figure, not like those disgusting body builders who tried to emulate a Machoke, but a lean muscled frame, a chiseled face, six pack abs, and large pectorals that had many fan girls gushing at the sight of him.

His taste in clothing had changed significantly over time as well, the only familiar piece of attire being his headwear, his new Kalos region Pokeball logo cap, which partially concealed that untamed, wild animal he called a head of hair. He now sported a black trench coat and a plain loose fitting grey tea shirt with no words or pictures embroidered on the chest to liven it up a bit. He had his trusty X-Transceiver hidden by the sleeve of his trench coat on his right wrist; and his favorite necklace with beaded words spelling out his favorite saying, '_true friendship never dies_,' a momentum from before his journey even began and something he wore all throughout his journey, to remind him that the best childhood friend he lost was always close to his heart. The master balls that contained his almighty, fully trained legendary Pokemon were concealed within the additional Pokeball holsters within his trench coat, and his mega bracelet was secured around his left wrist, which was also concealed by his trench coat. His pants weren't anything particularly different, but they were a dull grey as compared to the colorful blue jeans he used to wear. Pikachu often commented on how Ash's new style was depressingly lacking in color, but Ash wasn't really as tapped into the emotional color spectrum as he used to be, having become increasingly more emotionless, until at last he was left a shadow of his former enthusiastic self. His path to loneliness and depression began years ago, and though countless, good looking girls offered him everything from friendship to lust, love, wealth, fame, fortune, sex, or glory, he just couldn't get _her_ off his mind or out of his heart.

Ash wasn't interested in pursuing romance; the one girl he loved most of all had left him long before his journey even started, seemingly dropping off the face of the earth and taking most of his heart with her. Falling for Dawn in Sinnoh years later had been a big mistake. He had harbored a crush on May as well, but it hadn't progressed beyond that before Drew came into the picture, something for which Ash was actually secretly glad. Drew and May were extremely happy together, and that made him happy for his friend, even if Drew had started off as a little bit snooty. Dawn and Kenny however, just hearing their names still left a bitter taste in the Pallet town trainer's mouth.

He made a habit of not traveling with people who he could end up really caring about, who he could end up wanting to spend his life with. Ash was a traveler, and though it hurt to say goodbye to each new set of friends he made, he knew the path he walked was ultimately a lonely one in the end. Since traveling with Ash tended to get very dangerous, he knew he couldn't keep leading his friends into the madness and the chaos, and when opportunities arose for them, he always encouraged them to follow their dreams, even if their path split from his, even if it broke him inside to see them go.

Watching Dawn leave with Kenny after the Sinnoh League was perhaps the hardest departure Ash ever endured, and though he and his Sinnoh companion had parted on mostly good terms, Ash couldn't just turn his feelings for her off, even if he wanted to. He had loved Dawn, and letting her go had been the hardest decision Ash ever made, second only to one.

Ash shook his moroseness out of his mind and tried focusing on the positives. People always said his endless optimism was one of his most endearing traits, but it was getting harder and harder to put on a smile and act like everything was fine when deep down Ash was slowly falling to pieces. Pikachu and his other Pokemon were sticking to Ash like glue, and no matter what his human relations were like, he knew he could always count on his Pokemon to be there for him, without having to worry about their safety, for there were few dumb enough to cross the monsters he carried with him.

Even those that were, it wasn't like they really knew the full extent of Ash's power as a trainer, but he knew they'd all learn one day that he and his partners were not to be trifled with. Even enemies like Team Rocket, who had tried time and again to pilfer his Pokemon; Ash knew it wasn't really going to happen. Even if they succeeded, Team Rocket was never very good at covering their tracks; but even if they were, Ash still wasn't worried, because he had one more ace up his sleeve that Team Rocket knew nothing about.

In fact the only people who did know for sure were the Oak family and his mom Delia, and maybe since Lucario mentioned it to them, May and Max might have pieced it together. Dawn and Brock were the only other individuals he told, though that was when he was still getting a handle on it and he didn't want the blue haired coordinator to freak out if she accidentally caught him training alongside his Pokemon. Brock knew simply because he knew Ash better than almost anybody, having travelled with him longer than anyone else to. In the end though, even Brock had found a dream and Ash reluctantly said goodbye.

Ash Ketchum was many things, the son of the all-powerful world Champion Red, the Chosen One, the King of the Sea, and many other titles that earned him a fierce rep all across the world. The one thing most people didn't know he was though; was an aura guardian, one who possessed limitless spiritual power. Upon mastering his aura, Ash was even more surprised to discover his endless spiritual energy didn't stop at just the power of aura, no; he had limitless Chi and Mana, which afforded him countless other powers.

Ash could augment his physical capabilities, his strength, speed, reflexes, and fighting prowess to absolute levels while ignoring any and all laws of physics; such as the G-Force, which he was immune to the harmful effects of even while moving at many times the speed of light. He could tap into and control the five elements; earth, water, fire, wind, and ether, summon vast storms capable of blanketing the planet, conjure torrents of fire that could get as hot as the Planck Temperature, and command the forces of nature at levels on par with fully trained individuals of the Hoenn region's weather Trio.

He could create aura spheres of varying sizes and any degree of power. He could expand his conscious awareness to cosmic levels, instantly learning any amount of information from any and all recorded material with a single glance. To top off all that, his Mana and Chi afforded him almighty magical powers of countless different varieties and types. He could use them to warp the fabric of reality on any scale and to any degree, emulate any and all Pokemon attacks on the same level as level 100 Pokemon, and could become supernaturally competent in any and all fields, including fields of combat.

Ash possessed limitless spiritual powers of all kinds, and was the first aura master in history to do so; even sir Aaron couldn't use Mana or Chi powers. Upon discovering these abilities, Ash began moonlighting as a vigilante outfitted in a suit comprised entirely of pure spiritual energy. He became known all over the world as the Aura Phoenix, and now it stuck; ironically his alias was even more famous now than he was as Ash Ketchum.

The Aura Phoenix had contributed to the fall of both Team Galactic and most recently Team Plasma in Unova, while Ash captured Kyurem and Giratina from those regions, along with the both Zekrom and Reshiram. A few people knew about his alter ego, though a lot of them knew due to circumstances beyond his control; like May, Brock, and Max hearing about it from Lucario. Kidd knew about it to, but Ash wasn't too concerned about trusting her discretion; since she had wanted to keep information about the tree of beginning a secret and because she had witnessed firsthand his willingness to sacrifice himself to save the tree, something she referred to as the essence of heroism. Looking back now, Ash realized she was right, he was a hero; true heroism is willingly sacrificing oneself so that others may live, but it seemed fate had other plans for him and a heroically honorable death was not an option.

Dawn knew because he had fallen in love with her and foolishly believed they could actually have a life together. It didn't end well, and Ash was reminded once again that any human companion he traveled with could never stick with him in the long run. Each friendship was fleeting, each companion a temporary student for Ash to teach or a person for him to disappoint when they started developing feelings for him. He never looked back if he could help it, but he did keep tabs on all of them just the same.

Misty was still leading her gym in Cerulean city, and aside from Viridion gym was considered the gym to beat in all of Kanto. The only reason Viridion gym was higher up that totem pole was because Blue Oak lead it. The older brother of Gary and Daisy, Blue Oak was the eldest grandchild of Professor Oak, and was a Pokemon prodigy at a young age, having been Red's biggest rival throughout his entire journey across the world.

Like Red, Blue had captured almost 700 different species of Pokemon, all of them fully trained to the infinitely powerful Monsters all Pokemon had the potential to be but very rarely became. Compared to their champion level teams of 30 almighty Pokemon, Ash was still a newbie in comparison. Like his father before him however, Ash was slowly climbing the ranks of success and as Ash swore since the day he could talk, he would eventually take his father's throne as the most powerful trainer in all of history. He was off to a great start to, his starter Pikachu was originally Red's, and was level 100 when Ash first got it.

Pikachu had maximum speed right from the get go, and thanks to training with Ash for the past 5 years, now had maximum attack and special attack. With three infinite stats, Pikachu could move at infinite velocities, and had absolutely limitless offensive power and physical strength, being able to effortlessly toss Pokemon that are vastly out of its weight class like they are mere toys. Being a level 100 Pokemon, it also had unrestricted access to its entire set of moves, including Thunder, Thunderbolt, Volt Tackle, Quick Attack, Extreme Speed, and even the moves that the cosplay Pikachu back in Hoenn was famous for; including Flying Press, Meteor Mash, Draining Kiss, and others. There was also the highly useful Electro Ball, which took advantage of Pikachu's absolute speed, and Iron Tail, which would come in handy for slaughtering those pesky Fairy Types. There was also Reflect and Light Screen for boosted defensive power, and one of Ash's personal favorites, Magnet Rise, which made Pikachu immune to ground type attacks, though at the unfortunate cost of rooting it to the spot.

His other human companions all followed their dreams, and Ash was pleased when he found out that May and Dawn both became top coordinators, which afforded them the same privileges as a champion level battler. They could both carry teams of up to 30 Pokemon, a feat Ash himself had yet to achieve, though as he explained to Dawn many times over, the ranking of a trainer was easier to boost in the contest circuits than in the Pokemon League competitions, his words humbling Dawn and keeping her from getting a swelled head.

Despite their success as coordinators, both girls admitted it was Ash's teachings and battling styles that got them this far. One of the first things he taught them was to focus on enhancing both the power and beauty of their Pokemon and their attacks, a process very few coordinators cared to do. Both May and Dawn's Pokemon were significantly higher leveled than even the most seasoned coordinators, the only exceptions being Wallace and maybe Nando, who likewise concentrated on both battling and coordinating. Ash had taught them that high level Pokemon would have a distinct edge in contest battles, and both of them took his advice with the utmost enthusiasm.

In appeal rounds it didn't matter as much, but in the contest battles Ash knew a high level Pokemon would have an almost unfair advantage against any opponent who didn't train like May or Dawn did. Both of them had teams of level 100 Pokemon. May's Mega Blaziken, Venesaur, Blastoise, Beautifly, and Glaceon were all level 100; as were Dawn's Mega Lopunny, Empoleon, Togekiss, Mamoswine, Ambipom, Pachirisu, and Typhlosion. Maybe he was being a bit presumptuous, but Ash suspected that his teachings about high level Pokemon may have largely contributed to May and Dawn's recent successes. He wouldn't take all the credit, but he felt immense pride and satisfaction in knowing that implementing his battling style and expertise may have significantly sped up their growth in the contest world, even more so when he realized just how close to their hearts they held everything he had taught them.

'Pika, Pikachu Pi?' Ash was interrupted from his musing by his starter getting his attention, having learned not to become too spaced out lest he receive an electric shock to jar him back to his senses. "I'm fine buddy, just reminiscing is all," Ash smiled, reaching up to his shoulder with his right arm and scratching the yellow fur ball's ear, earning a contended 'cha' from the Pokemon.

"Pikachu?" it questioned, and this time Ash translated Pokespeech through the power of aura. '_Alright, what about,_' it questioned, its inner voice echoing in Ash's head as the Pallet town prodigy replied, the both of them communicating on a completely telepathic level.

'_Just about all of our previous travel companions, and whether or not I should just strike out on my own from here on out_,' he replied, knowing he could trust Pikachu with the unabridged version of the truth. Pikachu responded with an angry 'pika,' and Ash sighed. '_Don\t even think about it Ash, you and I both know that is never going to happen. People look up to you, every day you inspire your friends to continue persevering, to never give up on their dreams no matter what. I know you think it is dangerous to travel with you, and it is, but Brock, Misty, May, Max, Cilan, Iris, and even Dawn knew the risks, and they still stayed by your side until they found something they really wanted to do. You're the one who encouraged them, and though you did so because you were scared of putting them at risk, do you honestly think for a second that any one of them would hesitate to rejoin you if you asked them_?!' Pikachu demanded, and Ash sighed morosely before shaking his head.

'_No Pikachu, they wouldn't hesitate, and that's exactly the problem. Half the time I don't know where my journey will lead me, or if I can promise my mom that I will keep coming back to her alive and in one piece. Here in Kalos, I have yet to make a name for myself that is as well known as in the other regions, but how long do you reckon that will last? How long before yet another evil team of sadistic bastards brands me a threat to their operations just on sheer principle? Team Plasma did it back in Unova, and I was targeted practically every other day, I even have the scars to prove that I barely escaped my fight with the Shadow Triad with my life. My friends are in danger just by being near me, and as much as I like Clement and Bonnie, I just don't know if I want them coming along with me_?' Ash said after several moments of silence, the only noise in the eerily silent evening time Santalune forest being the occasional chirping of bird Pokemon, and the crunching sound of bug types crawling over leaves.

Pikachu proceeded to smack Ash on the forehead for his stupidity, unable to believe his trainer was actually entertaining this idea. '_You complete and utter moron, do you honestly believe you don't need your friends as much as they need you?! Holy Arceus in heaven above, your father didn't have too many human friends but the ones he did have, he kept very close to his chest! You don't actually believe you can take on the whole world by yourself do you? Whatever we've faced in the past, we would have died a thousand times over if not for our friends Ash, and you damn well know it! I get that you're afraid, any sane man would be if his friends were targeted, but look around Ash, we've overcome every adversity we've ever faced, and we've come close to dying many times. In the end though, we always triumphed, and we're all still alive for the moment. Besides, it's not like we can live forever, even fully trained Pokemon have their limits, and in the end, death comes for us all, we can only evade it for so long. You and I both know that whatever new evil team comes crawling out of the woodwork isn't going to stop targeting you or your friends just because you travel alone, the only thing it accomplishes is separating us from them, and then our enemies would have an easy time picking them off. Remember the saying Ash, keep your friends close,_' Pikachu had shouted the first part of his statement, but as he continued his reprimanding of his best friend and Ash slowly began to realize he was right, his voice had softened considerably.

"Maybe you're right, I could probably keep my current companions safer if they're close enough for me to keep an eye on, and nobody except my closest friends knows I'm the Aura Phoenix, or about my other spiritual powers. Nevertheless, the more who know everything about me, the greater the risk of something getting out, if I am to tell Bonnie and Clement all my secrets, I'm going to need to make sure they can keep them, even under interrogation from our most sadistic adversaries. It's not a question of trust Pikachu, it has more to do with whether or not they can keep a tight lid on everything I tell them, even from enemies with psychic type Pokemon, which can simply read their minds and find out everything I may or may not tell them. No matter what happens though, I'm going to encourage them to chase their dreams, and the first chance they get, I'm going to let them go," Ash determined resolutely, and Pikachu sighed.

'_You really need to get yourself a girlfriend who can talk some sense into you dude, who knows, Kalos is the most romantic region in all of Pokeearth, maybe you'll find someone here,_' Pikachu snickered. "You and I both know that's not going to happen Pi, the one girl I could have loved enough to spend the rest of my life vanished years ago and Dawn and I aren't exactly on the best of terms, not since..." Ash paused, unable to continue as he remembered something.

Quickly removing his backpack from his shoulders, Ash placed Pikachu aside, ignoring the mouse's protests as he opened it up and started digging through its contents. Pikachu watched in earnest as Ash tossed aside Misty's fishing lure, the half Pokeball he got from Gary, the half contest ribbon from May, the custom made pendent with a tiny Pikachu and Piplup high fiving each other from Dawn, until those, his canisters of Pokefood, his tent, and many other odds and ends were emptied out onto the leaf-dotted forest floor.

"Aha, found it!" Ash shouted in triumph before producing what looked like a perfectly unremarkable pink ribbon, at least from Pikachu's perspective. Noticing the fond look on his trainer's face, Pikachu quickly amended its original impression of the three and a half foot ribbon, which looked to be the kind one makes into bows. In shock, the electric mouse watched as its trainer grinned from ear to ear for the first time in months; whatever this thing was, it was clearly extremely important to him.

'_Never give up until the end_,' Ash reiterated fondly, the image of a cute girl wearing a pink sundress and a straw hat flashing through his mind. Ash didn't often allow himself to dwell on memories of his best childhood friend Serena, because then he'd remember how she left and that hurt too much, but just this once, he'd indulge himself a little.

Ash had been in love with Serena since before he even knew what love was, he had first met her at professor Oak's summer camp, nearly ten years ago. After helping her out in the forest, bandaging her cut knee with his favorite handkerchief, and helping her back to camp, Ash had been visited by his mom, who got the whole story out of him and convinced him to go introduce himself to her.

It had been an awkward situation for both six year olds, but once they got their introductions out of the way, they quickly hit it off. For the remainder of summer camp, Serena partnered with Ash for every single activity, always telling him he made her feel safe, which would practically melt his heart, for reasons his six year old mind hadn't been able to comprehend at the time. By time summer camp ended, the two of them were inseparable and overjoyed when Serena's mom came by with news that she and Serena had been packed and moved to Pallet town.

For over two years he and Serena were attached at the hip, there was almost never a waking moment where one was seen without the other, and Ash's mom and Grace would often talk about the possibility of their children getting married when they grew up, only discussing this when they thought their kids couldn't hear, but both of them had indeed heard it, and more than once.

It always made Ash's chest flutter when Serena blushed upon hearing this, but didn't flat out deny it like he did from time to time. Looking back on it though, Ash had to wonder if his mom and Grace knew better than they did, because the day Serena had to move away was the hardest day of Ash's entire life, even to this day.

He realized now that he had wanted to stay with Serena forever, but he never got that wish, such a simple thing to wish for too. All he had ever wanted was to journey together with Serena, like the two of them planned, but now it seemed those plans and all those promises of forever were all for naught. He hated the empty feeling that stayed with him all these years, a void in his soul that even Dawn hadn't been able to completely fill. Now with Dawn gone as well, the heartache had only gotten worse, and to his horror, Ash realized it was actually beginning to affect his aura and other spiritual powers.

It wasn't the power levels themselves that were affected, the limitless strength and inexhaustibility of his spiritual powers were still fully intact, but they were becoming increasingly unstable, volatile, and his control over them was slowly slipping, a lot of the time he couldn't even hang onto his pure energy suit when moonlighting as the Aura Phoenix. The worst part was he was unable to do anything to rectify it, though from what he had heard about the legends that surrounded Kalos, there was a mythical Pokemon that may be able to help him with his problem, if only to give him a temporary fix, it was still something.

Xerneas, the mythical Pokemon that according to legend controlled infinite amounts of life energy and spiritual powers, able to bestow people with eternal life and immortality so that only its antithesis, the legendary Yveltal which embodied infinite destruction, could kill these immortals off. If Ash could get a chance to meet it like he had nearly every other legendary Pokemon, he could probably ask why his own spiritual powers were refusing to stabilize, or why whenever he thought of Serena there was this strange tugging sensation in the pit of his stomach that caused his life aura to project itself of its own accord in a series of incandescent, almighty pulses of what almost appeared to be desperation, as though searching for something or someone like Ash's life depended on it.

The hint of desperation his spiritual energy exuded when this occurred scared Ash more than anything, and he knew it could only lead to serious, life threatening situations if he didn't identify the problem in time and took steps to fix it. Ash knew that aura guardians have died from their own spiritual energy before. Those who lost control badly enough were often consumed by their own essence and turned into pure energy. Ash knew he was at risk of facing the same fate, but what could he do? He had tried meditating and communicating with his own inner aura to identify what was wrong, but even it wasn't entirely sure what the problem was, only that it had something to do with Serena. _Something to do with Serena_; that was when Ash knew he was in trouble, since Serena had pretty much dropped off the face of the earth the day she left. Ash had tried tracking her through every means he had at his disposal short of using his own shiny Mew to do the job for him, but to no avail. Fortunately, when Mew mentioned that Xerneas may be able to help him, Ash was convinced he had found another way.

He considered asking his rarest and most omnipotent Pokemon out right what his problem was, since it had been alive since the beginning of time and was basically omniscient as well, but Mew only said that was something Ash had to discover for himself, for Arceus decreed that humans and Pokemon solve their own problems by working together. Being omnipotent meant that Mew was not to interfere in mortal affairs unless there was overwhelming reason to do so, same with Arceus and the creation trio, all of whom were gods. Sensing that Ash wasn't reassured; Mew promised that any actual serious threat to its trainer's life qualified as an overwhelming reason to initiate some good old fashioned '_divine intervention'_, but also stated very firmly that it would only do so if Ash's spiritual energy was well past the danger zone and straight into the critical. Right now, it said it was able to determine that Ash was somewhere in what the humans called the warning or the proceed with caution yellow area, which was no cause for serious alarm in the danger-o-meter as the feline legendary Pokemon jokingly pointed out, its reference to danger levels irritating him, though it reassured him to know he wasn't beyond the point of no return, at least not yet.

Despite what it said, Mew was still permitted to battle on Ash's behalf. Being fully trained with an infinite set of stats, it could even tap into its full move pool, which due to it being the ancestor or all Pokemon was essentially limitless, enabling it to take on virtually any _worthy_ adversary. Mew would not fight a newbie trainer unless it was using a truly tiny portion of its full power, a portion that was finite. Some of its more powerful and non Pokemon related abilities, such as its mastery of all magic in existence, its more extreme psychic and telekinetic powers, and other absolute powers were abilities it could only use as a last resort, and even then only when the entire universe was threatened. Its totality manipulation, and its ability to achieve the intrinsically impossible and override all other forces and powers like they didn't exist at all were only ever to be used if everything inside and outside the confines of the universe was threatened, only if the whole of creation, the multiverse, and realms beyond it Ash didn't know the names of were threatened by omnipotent adversaries. Sufficed to say, Mew had never been faced with something dangerous and powerful enough to threaten infinite universes and realities in all its countless billions of years, so Ash decided not to pry it for any more information.

No matter what happened, he had his Pokemon to help him out if he needed them to, and given what Pikachu said earlier, he knew he also needed his friends. He didn't have to like it, but whether or not he did, his human companions were just as important to him as any of his Pokemon, and he needed to learn to accept that. Not that he didn't keep tabs on them; in fact whenever he got time he called them up on his X-Transceiver to check in on them from time to time, but also to let them know how he was holding up. Like he reflected upon earlier, all of his friends had become some of the top individuals in their respective fields. Misty the water type gym leader of the century, Pokemon doctor Brock, top coordinators May and Dawn, Max the wunderkind and now traveling trainer, since he was 11 years old now. Ash smiled as he thought about the promise he made to Max all those years ago, after the Terracotta contest where he gave the boy his word that they'd have a battle when Max was old enough to be a trainer. He planned on keeping that promise, along with the promise to Dawn that he'd call her at least once a week. He sighed in internal agony; no matter how much she may have broken his heart, Ash still loved her, and it seemed she still had lingering feelings for him to, which made his call to her last week extremely awkward for both of them.

Long story short though, everyone Ash had ever traveled with had become the best at what they loved doing, and he took great pride and satisfaction from the fact that he helped make all of them who they are today. Everything he had given them, everything he taught them, they all committed to with every fibre of their being, and Ash felt gratified to have such an amazing group of friends, who at this point were like extended family to him.

The sun was dipping below the horizon and had all but vanished from Ash's viewpoint due to the trees, which were growing sparser indicating their arrival at the end of Santalune forest. Ash had finished cleaning up the mess he made with the contents of his backpack a while back, and had now resumed his trekking out of perhaps the largest forest in all of Kalos. After arriving in Kalos with Alexa, Ash had immediately challenged the Lumiose city gym after hearing that Alexa's sister ran a gym elsewhere and was currently on vacation. Ash shuddered as he and Pikachu remembered the hostile gym leader at Prism tower, who proceeded to shock them when they admitted to having no Kalos gym badges. This event culminated in Ash and Pikachu being forcibly ejected from Prism tower from almost one hundred feet up and quite literally dropping in on Clement and Bonnie, and well the rest was history.

Images of battling Clement's Bunnelby, encountering the ever persistent Jessie, James, and Meowth of Team Rocket for the umpteenth time, rescuing an injured Froakie, and finally saving the mind controlled Garchomp atop Prism tower flashed through the young man's head at speeds much greater than what a normal human brain could process, but Ash was far from normal.

'_Ash, we're almost out of the forest_,' Pikachu pointed out, snapping Ash out of his reverie for the second time as the Pallet town trainer gazed ahead, realizing his starter was right. "Alright come on buddy, race you back to Santalune city," Ash grinned in challenge, Pikachu mirroring his expression as both trainer and Pokemon took off in a whirl of speed that wasn't humanly feasible, surpassing the speed of sound and leaving a small sonic boom in their wake.

"Clement, why isn't Ash back yet?" a small, blonde haired girl whined inquiringly, as though somehow the person she spoke to could know. The girl went by the name Bonnie, and she was eight years old, only two years younger than the required age to get her Pokemon training license, which would enable her to go on her own journey and kick some serious ass in the Pokemon battling circuit. Before she met her new friend a week ago, she counted down the days remaining until her tenth birthday every morning, but now she found she was perfectly content just tagging along with the strange boy and his Pikachu at her current size and age. She no longer needed to count the days, because right now she was on this epic journey and though she wished she could have some Pokemon of her own, traveling with Ash, Pikachu, and Clement was proving to be quite rewarding for the young girl.

In the last week alone they had helped save all of Lumiose city, watched Ash catch a Froakie, and had encountered a Dedenne which Bonnie thought was the cutest thing she'd ever seen, only to watch it break down in tears when a Fletchling stole the berry it intended to eat. Ash had quickly proceeded to capture the rather powerful Fletchling which somehow had its hidden ability, and after they made it to Santalune city, Ash had gone off on his own to train his newest team members in the humungous forest south of Santalune city, leaving Bonnie and her brother to their own devices and a certain blue eyed little girl feeling very bored.

The Santalune city Pokemon Gym wouldn't open up again until tomorrow from what they had been told, but Bonnie was already ready to leave. She had seen a lot of the sites this city had to offer, and though she liked sightseeing as much as the next person, she was ready to watch Ash win his first gym badge. Having watched Ash in battle twice now, Bonnie was only just starting to get a clear idea how strong the boy from Kanto was. That Pikachu of his was not only cute as a button, but also extremely fast and powerful, almost appearing battle worn when Ash had accepted Clement's challenge back when they first met.

Noticing that Clement was ignoring her question, Bonnie shrugged and realized that he probably didn't know any better than she did as to when Ash was coming back. They were hanging out at the Santalune shopping mall, one of the largest malls in Kalos and the entire world. It was packed with people and Pokemon around the clock and was open 24/7, even on Christmas, Easter, and new years. There wasn't a single hour in the day where this place was asleep, the sounds of people and countless different Pokemon alike reverberated through this lobby into all hours of the night. The mall had clothing boutiques, bakeries, Pokemon Marts with more items available than the famous department store in Lilycove city, a couple of restaurants, toy stores, movie shops, and video game stores. It had everything a child could ever want, but Bonnie wasn't interested in toys, movies, or video games. A lot of people nowadays were into that kind of stuff sure, but Bonnie was one of those old fashioned types, the kind of kid who dreamed of traveling the world on nothing but her own two feet and seeing all there was to see, all the Pokemon in the world, legendary or otherwise. That... like so many others before her, was Bonnie's dream.

Her brother Clement, a bespectacled 14 year old boy with blue overalls, a giant backpack stuffed with half finished inventions and machines, and blonde hair and blue eyes like his sister, was an aspiring inventor, and he was quite good at it. All he needed now was a dependable wife to take care of him, and before she started her own journey, Bonnie was adamant about matching him up with someone who could make him happy and well taken care of for the rest of his days. She couldn't look after him while she was out on her own journey, and wanted to make sure he was safe and well looked after, so she eyed people all around the store, looking for beautiful young women who were beautiful, nice, and appeared intelligent, because that was no less than her brother deserved. Clement wasn't the kind of boy to be attracted to a girl who couldn't keep up with his intellect, or understand his crazed passion for inventing all kinds of amazing gadgets to suit any situation. There weren't really too many things out there her brother wasn't prepared for, and she had a feeling Ash would get a lot of use out of her brother's talents during his journey, especially if people like that Team Rocket came after him again, which wouldn't surprise the little girl in the slightest. (_Author's Note: Unlike the anime, my story has a much more serious element to it, so yes, Clement is actually good at tinkering and inventing things, and Team Rocket is actually a somewhat decent group of villains when they're on top of their game. I made it clear many times that this story is completely AU and has very few ties to the canon storyline, only following some aspects of it but always with a more serious side, and only up until Kalos, where things will eventually veer off from the Anime time-stream completely. Things will stray from the anime series in an extreme enough fashion that if not for certain key elements in the Anime remaining in my story because of the overall plot I have cooked up, the timeline would be rendered unrecognizable. But hey guys, if you wanted things to follow a canon storyline than just watch the Anime for crying out loud or find a fanfiction that better suits your needs, but don't bother leaving negative comments on my review page because I haven't any interest in reading them)_

Looking beside her, she noticed Clement sitting on their bench tinkering with a couple of nuts, bolts, and pieces of scrap metal and wire in a hunched over position. It seemed that he had also become bored with simply waiting for Ash and was tinkering for the sake of tinkering. To Bonnie's untrained eyes, he appeared to be making some kind of miniaturized robot, shaped like a Pokemon strongly resembling Heliolisk, the sounds of the massive crowds conversing, the constant scuffing of shoes, and the various footfalls of different Pokemon like background noise as her brother's face scrunched up in concentration, and Bonnie went back to scanning the noisy, teeming masses, searching for signs of Ash as well as any pretty, nice, intelligent girl who might be interested in her geeky brother.

"There he is Clement, I think I see him!" Bonnie shouted in excitement, drawing all the surrounding eyes as she spotted a familiar figure approaching, his handsome, chiseled face breaking into a genuine smile as he waved at her, his Pikachu climbing onto his head to get a better look at them. Ash was a good deal taller than most of the people in sight, even at sixteen years of age Ash was almost six and a half feet tall, so it wasn't difficult to spot him. His trench coat made him look even taller somehow, and it didn't hurt that it also made him look like a total badass. Catching Bonnie's eye, Ash's eyebrow quirked as his eyes shifted to the crowds around him, and it took less than a second for her to get the message. She and Clement waited until those who gazed at them took their leave, giving Ash the opportunity to quietly blend in with them as he smiled gratefully at them for not making a scene and outing him to everyone in the mall.

Ever since he risked life and limb to rescue that poor Garchomp a thousand feet above solid ground, more and more people were becoming aware of the fact that their new friend and travel companion was a hero. It amazed her that he didn't seem to desire the attention or the constant longing stares people, particularly girls, sent his way. He was humble, modest, and surprisingly down to earth for a trainer who was obviously extraordinarily gifted and _so_ brave when it came to helping out Pokemon.

Bonnie was still gushing herself about it from time to time, and could understand why so many people gazed at the boy in star struck awe and wonder. Ash just seemed so much larger than life half the time, and the other half he was trying to downplay his heroic egresses. He was the kind of trainer she and Clement could gravitate towards, and they both seemed to come to that same conclusion at the same time when Clement asked him if it would be okay if they travelled with them.

His response still surprised her, and she wondered why all of a sudden the boy who practically radiated positive energy had such a haunted look in his eyes. He looked like he was having an internal debate about whether or not he should let them come, and the terrified, almost frantic look in his gaze scared her, though behind that veil of uncertainty and fear she saw something else; a desperate longing for a companion, but more importantly a friend. Eventually he caved when he saw her staring at him with some concern and longing of her own, and he reluctantly agreed to let them accompany him. For some reason looking down into her eyes and seeing her trademarked Lilipup pout had managed to crush any reluctance he had about having them along, and Bonnie had a strange, inexplicable feeling her adorable expression was not the reason in this case.

Since that day about a week ago, Bonnie had often pondered the enigma that was Ash Ketchum, though not to the extent that her brother did when he thought nobody could hear him. Unlike Clement, Bonnie didn't pride herself on her intelligence, but she was very mature for her age and was really good at reading people, a trait she had picked up at an early age back when she first discovered her father Meyer was hiding something. Although she never found out what part of his life her dad was keeping from them, she took pride in the fact that she had at least noticed _that_ when her own intellectual brother couldn't pick up on it. Grinning to herself, Bonnie remembered actually scoring higher on the IQ test than her brother but decided against boasting about it, since that would probably wound his pride.

Due to her ability to read people, Bonnie quickly discerned that Ash was hiding something as well, and whatever it was, it was huge. Sometimes she would catch him in unguarded moments when he thought she wasn't watching and was training his Pokemon, the expression on his face made him look so old, tired, and worn, like he was bearing this heavy burden all by himself and had been bearing it alone for too long. She tried subtly to get him to open up, but so far he was pretty closed off, and she just decided that if he wanted to tell her anything he would when he was ready, on his terms not on hers.

Clement had often reminded Bonnie not to pry into Ash's personal life, and Bonnie had respected that for the most part, but still something was off about him, and her natural curiosity was slowly eating away at her the longer she waited for him to open up. He was an amazing, selfless, courageous person who deserved nothing but praise, love, and support, he shouldn't have to go through whatever he was going through alone, and if he wasn't comfortable opening up to her and Clement, then she hoped he'd find somebody who could draw him out. His mother seemed nice enough from the way Ash described her, and the fact he knew professor Oak was incredible, but she quickly surmised that even if they knew what was bothering the boy, they didn't know how to help; otherwise he would have been in a much better place right now when he quite literally dropped in on them.

Noticing that he and that ever present Pikachu of his were now sitting right between her and Clement on the bench just sipping away at what appeared to be a milkshake, Bonnie was quickly snapped out of her reverie as she forced herself not to blush from the older boy's close proximity. If she were only a little bit older, or he a little bit younger, but alas it seemed her slight crush on Ash was unrequited, and it was probably better that way. A relationship between two people who were eight years apart in age was weird enough, but with one of them being eight years old, it was actually illegal. Not that anything would ever come of it, and she gladly accepted that, the sooner she got over this little infatuation with her new friend, the better.

"Bonnie, you okay, you seem kind of quiet?" Ash casually observed between sips, the three of them ignoring the passersby as Bonnie smiled up at the boy, who towered over her by at least two feet. "Of course Ash, I'm just kind of eager to get out of this place and to somewhere a little more... quiet," she replied, adding a bit of a shudder at the end, and Ash grinned in response.

"What this, this is nothing, you should see the crowds that gather at the Kanto or Johto Pokemon Leagues," Ash chuckled, reflecting on the fond memories of conquering both the Kanto and Johto leagues, along with the orange islands league, the Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova league, never battling the Elite Four in any of those tournaments, for two main reasons. For starters, he still wasn't confident he could go all the way against the members of the Elite Four and regional champions, his battle with Drake of the Hoenn Elite Four taught him that battling the likes of them was a whole another ball game, and considering he lost that fight, his confidence in his ability to conquer the Elite Four in battle was more than a little shaken. Secondly though, and most importantly, was the realization that his journey across all of Pokeearth was nearing its end, Kalos being the last of the main regions he could travel before he reached the end of the road. The world was a big place sure, but it wasn't infinitely vast, and deep down Ash always knew he'd eventually run out of places to go, things to see, he just didn't think it would be this soon. Going back to conquer the other leagues after he finished in Kalos seemed a good enough reason to backtrack, and would extend his journey just a little longer.

He had been so engrossed in his current train of thoughts he didn't notice Bonnie and Clement staring at him in slight shock. "So you've seen the Kanto and Johto League tournaments, exactly how much have you traveled Ash?" Clement wondered, unable to keep his curiosity in check as Bonnie resisted the urge to scold him for prying, especially when he had done the same to her and was now being a total hypocrite, but to her surprise Ash merely smiled.

"Yeah, we've been traveling for a long time now, and we just can't seem to settle down, isn't that right buddy?" Ash responded, scratching under Pikachu's ear and earning a contented sigh from the Pokemon. Bonnie found herself admiring the dynamics of Ash and Pikachu's relationship, wishing she could have a Pokemon even more now and wanting to bond with it on the same level these two seemed to exhibit. Still, it could wait, though aside from Pikachu, Fletchling, and Froakie, Bonnie had no idea what other Pokemon he had on his roster, though she could see at least three other Pokeballs attached to his belt.

"Whereabouts did you travel?" Bonnie asked in spite of herself, her own curiosity getting the better of her. She managed to keep down her blush as he smiled down at her, seeming to find her curiosity adorable. "Well, I've been all over Pokeearth; through Kanto, the Orange Archipelago, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova, Kalos is actually the last region in Pokeearth for me to explore aside from Orre and a couple of the smaller, lesser known regions. Once I'm done here, I was thinking of heading for the continents and exploring the rest of the world, of course that would take me very, very far away from home," Ash answered wistfully, and Bonnie resisted the urge to take his hand and give it a reassuring squeeze. She needed to get over this, this was not the sort of thoughts an eight year old girl should be having about a sixteen year old young man, but still, crushes could happen at a very early age, and lots of kids developed crushes on older individuals due to admiration.

"Come on, let's head to the Pokemon center or something, I think I've shopped enough for one day," Bonnie smiled, noting the large bags of clothes laying beside her on their bench, and Ash chuckled as he and Clement got up and let the girl lead the way, the trench coat slightly masking his features, for which he was secretly glad. It was becoming increasingly more difficult to conceal his identity from these complete strangers, let alone his friends. Letting slip that he had traveled the whole of Pokeearth probably gave Clement and Bonnie a new perspective on their previous assumptions of his power levels as a trainer.

Still, as much as he had become accustomed to keeping them, Ash didn't enjoy secrets, only hiding things on necessity. It wasn't a question of trust, initially he had been reluctant to travel with an entourage this time around, but he had bonded with Clement and Bonnie over the course of the events that transpired a week ago. Something in Bonnie's expression had made his resolve collapse, her blue eyes boring into him, seeming to see into his very soul like a certain other blue eyed, blonde haired little girl who had been his constant companion and the closest friend he'd ever known. Somehow seeing the ghost of Serena reflected in those shimmering cerulean orbs had made Ash stumble over his own convictions, and he couldn't deny Bonnie anymore, even as his mind was screaming that this could only end in disaster.

Trust wasn't really the main issue here, it was definitely one of but definitely not _the_ issue. Not knowing for sure whether or not knowing the truth about him would cause his friends to re-evaluate their relationship with him was hard but he could take it so long as they were safe. He'd much rather them be safe and following their own dreams than on a perilous journey with him that could potentially lead to their deaths. He wanted so badly to stop caring, to travel alone no matter what his friends would think, but he just couldn't shut his feelings off. That was his problem though; he didn't want to be alone on his journey. Sure, he had his Pokemon and all that but his human companions were just as important to him, some of them, namely Dawn and especially Serena, were the most important people in the world to him.

"Ash, you okay, now you're the one who seems quiet," Bonnie chided playfully, and Ash couldn't help grinning as they found themselves at the Santalune City Pokemon center with time to spare, the all too kindly and familiar nurse Joy wondering if they wanted their Pokemon checked up. Ash was initially reluctant to showcase his team but quickly squashed his unease, knowing the Pokemon attached to his belt weren't quite as eye catching as the five legendary Pokemon contained in master balls inside of his trench coat. His Mew, Mega Mewtwo which could utilize both of its all-powerful mega evolution forms, Kyurem, Primal Groudon, and Mega Rayquaza were all on standby in case there was a situation Ash's non legendary Pokemon couldn't handle on their own.

He kept his Charizard, Garchomp, and talking Lucario in his belt, having obtained Lucario as a very gifted Riolu he rescued from hunter J, Garchomp as a Gible bred from Cynthia's after stopping Team Galactic and saving all of Sinnoh, and of course his infamous Charizard who was a legend among its species. Fully trained in both his normal form and his two mega forms, his Charizard was without a doubt his strongest non legendary Pokemon, tied only by his Sceptile, both of whom wielded a complete set of infinite stats and could mega evolve. They both had unrestricted access to their full move pools, and infinitely superior HP and defensive stats to his Pikachu, who was runner up for the strongest non legend in its trainer's roster. Lucario and Garchomp both had maximum speed and incalculable everything else in their normal forms, and were fully trained in their mega forms, making them as powerful as the mega Lucario and Garchomp of Cynthia herself, who was considered one of the most powerful of the regional champions. Cynthia possessed a fully trained champion team of 30 Pokemon, she was truly prodigious even by regional Champion standards, and at only 24 years of age too. (_Author's Note: To clarify, incalculable is not the same as infinite in the stat measurement system. Incalculable suggests a number that while too high to accurately weigh or measure, is not in fact infinite, which is a concept not a number. The Pokedex in my own personal Pokemon Multiverse as I've started dubbing it, is basically a supercomputer far more advanced than anything we have here on earth and can calculate numbers as high as a googoleplex, only when the number surpasses that does the stat become immeasurable, and only when the Pokemon no longer has any limits to its power and can no longer determine the absolute outer limits to their strength, speed, and what not no matter how hard they battle or how strong the opponent does their stats become infinite. For fully trained Pokemon, stats, numbers, and equations are meaningless, since battles between them at their full strength is basically a means to unleash the apocalypse. Haha, OMG, try imagining an all out war between hundreds, even thousands of Pokemon at this power level say during the ancient war of Kalos 3000 years ago, but wait, you guys may not have to imagine for too much longer, anyways, I'll try to dial down on the whole stats and power level system from here on out, especially since I've made it pretty damn clear just how bat shit insane Pokemon in my stories are_)

Fully trained Pokemon of any type were basically gods, and Ash's Charizard's fire type attacks had come dangerously close to the Planck temperature on more than one occasion, the scariest part was it was holding back even then. Any fire type that was fully trained could use such attacks at this temperature, capable of melting virtually any substance in the universe, even substances that were at absolute zero. Against that kind of fire power, even most dragon types didn't stand a chance and the type matchup system was almost completely irrelevant where extremely high level Pokemon were concerned. Theoretically, there was no limit to how much heat and energy fully trained fire types could invest into their attacks, but anything hotter than the Planck temperature would no longer be considered an actual temperature, and nobody knew for sure exactly what would happen if they told their Pokemon to go that hot, so far no trainer in known history had ever chanced it.

All this Ash knew with absolute certainty, but it still surprised him whenever he felt Charizard's aura within its Pokeball. Being fully trained also meant a Pokemon was rendered effectively immortal, with absolute raw strength, speed, agility, stamina, reflexes, and a whole sleuth of other limitless powers depending on the type of Pokemon. For example, fully trained psychic types had almighty psychic and telekinetic powers, not to mention boundless pure power to amp up their various moves to any degree of intensity. All fully trained Pokemon had this ability in common, the ability to use all their moves at such levels that they could conquer entire armies of regular Pokemon single handed and with no amount of strain or exhaustion overtaking them. (_Author's Note: And there, done with the description of fully trained Pokemon, if you guys have any questions from here on out regarding the mechanics of this story, please leave a comment in the review section and I'll be more than happy to explain how everything works, I'll also be including some information about these things in my Profile_)

"Here nurse Joy, I'd like you to give my team a quick checkup please, I've got a gym battle tomorrow and I want to make sure they're at optimum performance," Ash finally announced after concluding his reverie and handing his first five Pokeballs to the pink haired nurse, who smiled and called for Wigglytuff, the most common Pokemon nursing assistant in Kalos. "Wiggly, Wiggly, Wigglytuff," it called, and Ash smiled at the kindly Pokemon as it carted his five Pokeballs away to have them examined, Pikachu jumping off of Ash's shoulder and joining the others as Ash waved at his starter and promised to be there when the yellow fur ball got back.

"You and Pikachu really do seem to be connected on some other level Ash," Clement commented airily, and Ash blushed as Bonnie added her own statement. "Yeah, I wish I could bond with Pokemon like you do, but I don't even have my trainer's license yet," she admitted sadly, her expression downcast as Ash got down on one knee and lifted her chin up so she was looking him straight in the eye.

"Bonnie, I know exactly how you feel, I felt the same way before I started my journey. I can remember counting down the days leading up to my tenth birthday, and I was absolutely ecstatic when I started out. All I can say is that it's worth the wait, and believe it or not, you're not the first person I've traveled with who was too young to get their trainer's license," Ash smiled kindly, and Bonnie's eyes lit up. "That's exactly what I used to do, and did you really travel with someone else like that? Who was it? When did you meet them?" she questioned enthusiastically, and Ash couldn't help chuckling at her passion.

"His name was Max, and I travelled with him and his older sister May in the Hoenn region, yes Bonnie, I knew May Maple," Ash replied, Bonnie's eyes widening in recognition of his old friend and crush's name. Amazingly, due to being top coordinators, news of Dawn and May's success had travelled much quicker than those of Ash himself, who still had yet to conquer a Pokemon League Championship Tournament, and because of that, he hadn't yet reached the amount of fame a top coordinator or champion level trainer would possess, something that actually made him glad, since few people in Kalos would know that he actually taught May everything she knew.

Upon seeing Bonnie's awestruck expression Ash reflected on his journey with May and Max. "Max was a good friend; he was like a little brother to me, kind of like you in a way. Honestly Bonnie, you're the little sister I never had," Ash whispered fondly, Clement watching the exchange with a touched smile as Bonnie's eyes watered and she tackled Ash with a fierce hug, surprising the Pallet town prodigy and nearly knocking him flat on his arse.

Despite his initial shock, Ash wasted no time in returning the embrace, feeling warm inside and compelled to find a way around that stupid law, so that Bonnie may at least know what it felt like to be able to take care of Pokemon. Suddenly a light bulb went off in Ash's head, and he pulled away from the hug, looking down at his little 'sister.' "I'll tell you what Bonnie, you can take care of my Pokemon whenever you like, and you remember that Dedenne we came across back before we arrived in Santalune city, the one you said was the cutest thing ever, well once my Pokemon are healed Clement and I are going to take you back to route four and we are going to catch it. Once we do it can be your Pokemon, unofficially of course, but nevertheless, you'll feed it, you'll take care of it, you'll train it, and everything," Ash promised her, quickly looking over to Clement for approval as the younger boy nodded his head and smiled warmly at Ash, evidently pleasantly surprised at how good the Kanto native was at handling kids.

Bonnie meanwhile, looked like a kid on Christmas morning, she had the biggest, goofiest, most adorable grin on her face, and her sapphire eyes were alight with pure euphoria. Before Ash could react he was suddenly pummeled by her slamming into him again with another hug, this one even tighter than before, surprising him with how strong she was for her size. "Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! Ash, you're the best!" Bonnie exclaimed, squealing girlishly at a high enough pitch to make her voice crack.

Before Ash could respond, the familiar ringing tune of the Pokemon center sounded, indicating his Pokemon were finished with their checkup. Nurse Joy and Wigglytuff exited the checkup room with Pikachu and the rest of Ash's team in tow, the electric mouse Pokemon leaping from the cart to Ash's shoulder in one precise leap, rubbing its cheek against Ash's in affection and climbing on top of his head, nearly knocking off his hat in the process. "I must say young man, your Pokemon are extremely healthy, and your Pikachu, Charizard, Garchomp, and Lucario are some of the best I've ever seen," she informed him kindly, and Ash blushed while sighing internally in relief.

Nurse Joy either didn't check their stats, which wasn't actually part of a routine checkup, or she was kind enough to be vague and discrete to spare Ash of any unwanted attention. Taking the rest of his team and attaching them to his belt, Ash joined Bonnie and Clement at the cafeteria near the Pokemon center's entrance, the dining tables and chairs next to the windows, giving one a perfect view of Santalune city.

Bonnie and Clement waited for Ash to order first as the waitress arrived at their seats, a few other trainers milling about but at this time people usually hung out at the mall, went eating at restaurants, or trained and looked for potential trainers to battle all over the city. Typically trainers were not commonly found at the Pokemon center just after sunset during the early hours of the evening. Checking his X-Transceiver as he thought about this, Ash confirmed it was just past eight PM, quickly concealing the rather expensive item once again as Bonnie and Clement stared at it in mild surprise, though neither commented on it, for which he was grateful.

Ash had ordered three XXL plates of Kalosian French fries, three large containers of gravy, four half pound cheeseburgers with everything on it from condiments to vegetables, and a large bottle of Ketchup for Pikachu. Grinning like a madman, Pikachu gladly accepted his trainer's generosity upon receiving his holy nectar, whereas Clement and Bonnie merely gawked at Ash's ridiculously large order with slacken jaws and bulging eyes.

"Very well sir, and for you two," the waitress asked, not even batting an eyelid as she waited for the two blonde haired siblings to get over their shock and order. Recovering from their stupor took some time for them, which actually surprised Ash considering he'd been traveling with them for over a week. Surely his and Pikachu's eating habits shouldn't surprise them nearly as much by now, but apparently it took some getting used to, and frankly after all the training he did with his newly caught Fletchling and Froakie, Ash was feeling particularly peckish even by his standards. Bonnie and Clement didn't know this, but Ash had actually eaten before meeting them at the mall and a whole lot more than just that ice cream cone.

Ash had always been a big eater, but upon discovering his limitless spiritual powers Ash's metabolism had ascended to superhuman and sometimes even absolute levels. Given that he often enhanced his physical capabilities to absolute levels using his aura and other powers, that also meant he had to enhance his body's ability to metabolize all that raw energy and power, and though his aura and other spiritual powers could cope, his body constantly needed to ingest food just to get by. Depending on how much he enhanced his abilities, his metabolism could vary from peak human to truly boundless levels, enabling him to absorb infinite energy and effectively saturate his cells with that power. Even now, with his physical enhancements suppressed only by his desire not to remain superhuman at all times, Ash's metabolism was constantly spiked, and he needed to consume enormous amounts of food to survive. It was a damn good thing he had a ton of money otherwise he'd never pull this off. The only other solution was to make the almighty superhuman enhancements permanent, because as long as his cells remained infused with boundless energy his metabolism would never completely burn through it, even if it too was augmented to such insane proportions.

There were very few aura masters throughout history whose spiritual energy was strong enough to give them these kinds of problems, sir Aaron was definitely one of them, and back in his time they didn't have the same understanding of how the human body and cells work as they do now. Many aura masters had died simply because they didn't understand how negatively certain physical enhancements could affect their bodies. Even getting too emotional was ill advisable for them, because emotions only made it worse, but so far, Ash had managed to succeed where nearly every other aura master had failed. He was lucky enough to understand enough about human anatomy to get that these enhancements to his body may be more than what a normal human body could handle. He often wondered why Arceus didn't make it so the aura masters of the past adapted their bodies to suit their overwhelming spiritual force, though he suspected that the Alpha Pokemon wasn't allowed to interfere in mortal affairs anymore than Ash's silver Mew was, and that surviving was something each member of the human race had to figure out for themselves.

Bonnie and Clement watched in astonishment as the waitress brought them another table, which was needed just to hold Ash's order, placing their orders in front of them as Ash and Pikachu grabbed two of the dustbin lid sized plates overflowing with fries and the two pots of gravy, almost as large, and quite literally dived into it, Pikachu leaping onto the plate and drowning it in gravy and ketchup. Ash used his aura powers to augment his jaw's strength to make chewing easier; he also sped up his digestive track so he could make use of the energy the food would give him faster.

His current traveling companions alternated between watching them in sheer awe and eating their own orders, which were infinitesimal in comparison. Five minutes later, Ash and Pikachu had finished absolutely everything on both their table and the extra table which held all four of the biggest burgers Bonnie had ever seen. Pikachu, being an extremely high level Pokemon, actually ate two burgers himself and gave Ash a serious run for his money, their different in size compensated by Pikachu's inhumanly fast metabolism and the digestive tract of a level 100 mouse Pokemon, which worked hundreds of times faster than a human's.

In short, both trainer and Pokemon were lazing in their seats, patting their bellies in satisfaction in under five minutes, their torsos puffed out from overeating but neither of them had a stomach ache. Due to their metabolism, both of them were already making use of all the energy in the food, and thanks to Ash's aura, his stomach had expanded to accommodate the immense size of the meal he just consumed.

A loud belch escaped Ash's mouth, Pikachu following suit as Clement and Bonnie merely gaped at them, their mouths dangerously close to hitting the floor. Suddenly feeling sleepy, Ash's eyelids fluttered, and before Clement and Bonnie even finished half their meal, he drifted off to dreamland, the image of a beautiful woman haunting his dreams for what seemed the umpteenth time since he came to Kalos. Her resemblance to Serena was uncanny, but she was a good deal older than last he saw her, with a flawless figure, d-cup breasts, long golden hair that cascaded down to her slim waste in elegant waves, and most entrancing of all, her captivating cerulean eyes, the intensity of those alluring orbs strong enough to put the blue flares of Reshiram to shame. Her fashion sense was likewise impressive; a pink hat with a black ribbon placed lopsided on her head, seemingly in a deliberate, teasing way. Her attire consisted of a black tank top with a modest red skirt coming to just above her knees and black over the knee socks, showing only the tiniest bit of cream colored thigh. The image tormented his five minute nap with a small, teasing smile and a small tongue poking out cutely from between her full pink lips. Ash felt that familiar tugging sensation in his gut drawing him towards her like an irresistible magnetic pull as he awoke with a start before his dream self could reach her, every molecule in his body screaming at him to kiss her. His abrupt return to the physical world startled both Clement and Bonnie no thanks to him clumsily flinging his dishes on the floor with a subconscious swipe of his hand, the sound of breaking glass resonating throughout the entire Pokemon center cafe and drawing every eye to their table. Ash suddenly felt exposed and wanted nothing more than to sink into his seat and vanish...

XXXXXXXXXX

Lumiose city truly was a girl's one stop shopping metropolis. It had everything; clothing boutiques, possible costumes to use in Pokevision videos and even Tripokalon competitions, bakeries to indulge any sort of craving for sweets that may crop up at inconvenient times, and countless places to battle. As if that wasn't enough, it also had some of the best hotels and five star restaurants in the entire world and tons of scenic landmarks like Prism tower. One could lose themselves in the beauty and grandeur of the world famous city of lights, a fact not lost on one golden haired trainer making her way towards her room in the least expensive hotel in the city, which even by her standards was a place of luxury.

Serena Yvonne was a woman of very exquisite tastes, and this city was over-saturated with pleasures to her proverbial taste buds. Though she would have liked to stay at the best hotel in the city, Hotel Richissime, it was slightly out of her price range at the moment thanks to that shopping spree she had last week. She had wanted to treat herself and her Pokemon to a nice night out on the town, and had bought all manner of accessories and backdrops for the six members of her full Pokemon team. As a result of her splurging, she had been unable to afford a night at the most coveted hotel in all of Kalos, but she was willing to settle for one of the lesser known no name hotels, quite satisfied with how nice it turned out to be. Plus her spending the night there meant that hotel got one more customer's worth of business, and she felt good about doing what she could to help the locally owned series of rooms, at least until she won her next battle, competed in her next Pokemon Showcase, or the money she made doing a photo shoot came in.

Serena had spent the last five or so years on her journey through Kalos, assembling the best Pokemon performance team she could possibly put together. Her starter Pokemon Fennekin had evolved into Delphox now, and went from cute to utterly beautiful and breathtaking in its performance career. Likewise, her Pancham evolved into Pangaroo, and though its appeal type changed drastically, it now had the tough exterior to match its macho personality. The four remaining Pokemon in her party had taken her a great degree of traveling, training, and difficult work to capture. Her Sylveon was a common sight in her Pokevision videos, but due to how common it was in the Tripokalon circuit, Serena struggled to come up with an original showcase for it in actual performances. Her most famous and perhaps the powerhouse of her team was her Milotic, a Pokemon coveted by performers and coordinators everywhere due to it being widely revered as the most beautiful Pokemon in the world. Obtaining Milotic as a Feebas had been exceedingly difficult, especially when Serena found out what was needed to evolve it, but after bonding with it, enhancing its natural beauty with Pokeblocks, and making it feel gorgeous though, Serena had been positively delighted to see it engulfed in that all too familiar white light.

Fifth in her roster was her Absol, and though it was the disaster Pokemon she was amazed to discover how adept it was at performing. Its psycho cut and mega horn attacks were top notch, but due to being level 100 like her entire team, Serena had gotten special permission from the Kalos league champion Diantha to have her Pokemon exceed the four moves only limitation, and thus her Absol and other Pokemon were able to use their full move pools. Finally, there was her Altaria, which Serena had infused with the power of an Altarianite, a mega stone she happened across through sheer dumb luck back in Anistar city near the sundial. Of course; it would help if she had a mega ring but whatever, it was mostly sentimental anyways. She laughed out loud at the memory of examining every inch of the sundial at eight PM sharp when the sunlight gleamed through it. She stubbed her toe on some stupid rock as she walked over the unpaved, gravel roads behind the celestial looking gem. She then proceeded to kick the toe stubbing culprit with her good foot purely out of spite, and was surprised when her first and only mega stone flew out in a miniaturized maelstrom of small stones and face pelting pebbles.

All six members of her team were not only Pokemon performing fanatics, but also trained to level 100 thanks to some sound advice Serena received from one of her closest friends and a major crush of hers, the prodigious Pokemon trainer Calem. Calem had mentioned that training her Pokemon to high levels of power would give her Pokemon the energy needed to sustain their training for performances and their Pokevision videos without tiring or becoming worn out too soon. He also said that if her Pokemon were highly trained they'd have much more power to invest into the beauty of their attacks and showcases, not to mention a much larger move pool and greater versatility in her Tripokalon competitions, enabling her to come up with far more ideas for future Pokevisions and maybe even become the Kalos Queen some day.

Taking her closest Kalosian friend's advice to heart, Serena participated in battles whenever she wasn't performing, studying all the various mechanics for training and battling Pokemon and discovering to her surprise that she actually enjoyed battling, not as much as Tripokalons but she did enjoy them nonetheless. Having had only 6 Pokemon over the last six years, Serena had been able to train them to level 100 quite easily, and though they weren't anywhere near the absolute powers of the fully trained monsters she saw Diantha use in her exhibition matches, they were enough to grant her much greater versatility in all the Tripokalons she competed in thus far, and she was very thankful to Calem for that, even if he and her other three friends Shauna, Trevor, and Tierno weren't around at the moment.

Calem had immediately headed off for Unova upon receiving his Froakie from professor Sycamore, competing in gym matches and going on to win the Unova League at 11 years of age, competing in the championship tournament against the Elite Four and Champion Alder, winning it all and becoming a champion level trainer even younger than the world champion Red had done. Serena had been absolutely riveted watching him go all the way on the TV, and was extremely happy for her friend.

Since that year, Calem had gone on to conquer the Sinnoh, Hoenn, Johto, and Kanto leagues; losing to Drake of the Hoenn Elite Four and almost beating Lance in both Johto and Kanto, losing to both him and Cynthia in Sinnoh, the both of whom were the strongest of the regional champs. Just recently; he had battled against Lance in the Kanto Pokemon League Championship tournament finals and just barely lost. Serena had been quite sure her heart would stop waiting for the final results to be revealed. Lance had been brought down to his last Pokemon, which just happened to be his fully trained Dragonite, and Calem his Greninja. They were both down to their last Pokemon, and the battle between the two godlike Pokemon had forced the Elite Four members to step in and conjure shields around the vast crowd of spectators, reinforcing the original shields lest the entire stadium end up incinerated in the resultant collisions between the two titans.

In the end, Lance barely managed to win, the grievous injuries sustained by both Pokemon enough to knock Calem's starter out despite the fact they were already fully recovered by time Greninja hit the ground, and Serena finally managed to stop hyperventilating. Battles between Pokemon league champions were absolutely heart stopping, and she didn't think she'd ever get used to seeing it. Battles between them could last for days or even weeks, giving the spectators a very clear idea just how much endurance Pokemon trained to the highest level had, and how much their trainers had in turn. Last she heard Calem was training on the road, honing his already immeasurable skills and planning to take on Lance again in the Johto league next year. Serena had been keeping tabs on all her friends, but vested a particular interest in Calem, who constantly reminded her of a very dear friend she had left behind so many years ago.

Calem had a champion level team of 30 fully trained Pokemon now, easily as strong as either Cynthia or Lance but lacking the experience those two possessed. Being only fifteen years of age, Calem was still pretty young, but took his Pokemon training to truly frightening levels. Serena often worried he was pushing himself too hard, but even she couldn't deny the results it had, on both his Pokemon and on his already handsome features. Each time she saw him on TV he looked more and more attractive, and at this point only one person could have kept her from pursuing a relationship with him. (_Author's Note: Yes I'm perfectly aware I just made Calem a god among Pokemon trainers and potentially even more powerful than Ash, but it is completely intentional and I have a plan for it, trust me. I plan on Calem being Ash's biggest rival in Kalos, and before the inevitable soul bond between Ash and Serena I plan on Calem also being Ash's rival in a love triangle between the both of them and Serena. I'm not changing any of this, so don't bother complaining about me making Calem too overpowered, believe me, your complaints will fall on deaf ears. As for those of you who enjoy these changes, look forward to what's coming_)

Shauna had taken an interest in performances much the same as Serena, and she saw more of Shauna than she did any of her other friends. Having obtained Bulbasaur from professor Sycamore at ten years of age, Shauna now had a strong level 100 Venesaur that could mega evolve, having also taken Calem's sound advice to heart, she and Serena were both best friends and archrivals.

Tierno was as much a dancing fanatic now as he had been when she first met him. The Squirtle he received at the start of his journey had now become a level 100 mega evolved Blastoise with maximum speed, which amplified its dancing moves and kept it as flawlessly nimble as it had been as a Squirtle. Tierno's big dream was to assemble the world's best Pokemon dancing team, having captured a Ludicolo as fond of dancing as its trainer, a Spinda with a truly dazzling teeter dance, and at least two other Pokemon that could use swords dance, which was his favorite move.

Trevor sought to see every Pokemon registered in the national Pokedex and hoped to one day see Pokemon that nobody had ever seen before, his mega evolved, level 100 Charizard aiding him in his goals. Trevor had countless thousands of photos stored on a dozen different jump drives he carried with him along with a Pokedex which doubled as a Tablet for him to show off his photos, a very high end camera he spent years saving up for back in Vaniville town, and little else.

Shauna, Trevor, and Tierno had all gotten mega rings from the infamous mega evolution guru in Shalour city, at different times of course since Korrina's grandfather had a limited supply of them. Calem got his in the Hoenn region, and Serena could only guess how many mega evolved Pokemon he now had in his roster. Serena herself was a little more interested in obtaining a mega ring now than she had been initially, figuring mega evolution could help with her performances in some way and grateful Pokemon were able to use mega evolution even outside of battles. (_Author's Note: yes I'm aware that is a large deviation from the game's mechanics, but I wanted some non battling applications for mega evolution to exist in my universe, and I don't give a damn if it doesn't follow the games, it just makes it original and it isn't changing_)

All of them were going for their dreams and paving more than admirably, and Serena herself had won ten Pokemon Showcases; more than enough to earn her spot into the Master Class and compete for the title of Kalos Queen. After losing the master class showcase the first and only time she competed in it, Serena had decided not to compete in another one again until she was absolutely confident in her ability to go all the way. Plus working up to her first ever win in the regular showcases was hard as well, but after five years of nothing but performing, battling, training, and making Pokevision videos, Serena was starting to feel confident in her ability to compete in the master class, even if she ended up going toe to toe with Aria, the current Kalos queen and one of Serena's biggest idols.

Becoming the Kalos queen had been Serena's dream for years now, wondering how her closest childhood friend would react if he saw her face in a magazine some day, not that Serena wasn't already quite famous, she was in her own right. She had made a small fortune off of several photo shoots over the years, and she took pride in the fact she was considered attractive enough for several Pokemon showcase officials to recommend a life of modelling for the young, 16 year old teenager.

Diantha had even made an appearance at one of Serena's photo shoots, mentioning her potential for modelling and even posing in the photo shoot with her. That particular photo was tucked safely away at Serena's home in Vaniville town, but the rest had made her an extremely large profit and she had decided to invest the multi-million Pokedollar photo shoot into the bank in exchange for a certain percentage for the rest of her life. She knew she had only gotten so much publicity because Diantha had been in that studio with her, and she was grateful to the champion for that. That and her monthly allowance from her mom kept Serena and her Pokemon fed and quite well off, maybe even somewhat loaded at times. She saved a certain percentage of her earnings each month, planning on eventually retiring some day and as such trying to secure her future. (_Author's Note: I'm not sure how much photo shoots from top class models go for in our world but let's just say that in the Pokemon world they're worth a fortune, especially when famous people are in it_)

On top of all that, there were rather large cash prizes for every Pokemon showcase she won, and if she won the master class, the earnings of the Kalos Queen title would be enough to set her and her Pokemon for life after receiving the winnings of only one Master Class, never mind the yearly salary of the Kalos Queen. She looked forward to that and to seeing Calem and the others again, but most of all she looked forward to that fateful day, when _he_ finally arrived in Kalos.

Absentmindedly stroking a blue handkerchief she always kept tied around her right wrist; Serena fondly recalled every feature of the boy who had stolen her heart when she wasn't even ten years old. The same boy she had kept tabs on throughout his journey with more diligence than she did Calem or any other person on earth. After learning of his victory in the Unova League Tournament about a month ago, Serena longingly awaited any sign of his arrival in Kalos, yet despite her excitement at the prospect of finally seeing him again, secretly she was afraid he'd decide not to journey to Kalos.

'_True friendship never dies_,' he had told her, just before she had gotten in the packed car with her mom and drove from the far away town of Pallet, never to see it or the love of her life again. '_Oh Ash I'm so sorry, I promise if I ever see you again I'll stay by your side forever, just like I promised I would_,' Serena cried inwardly, a single tear escaping her eye before she could stop it, unable to keep the crushing guilt from weighing down on her yet again as she tried and failed to stop thinking about Ash Ketchum, _again_.

Despite the fact that she was only 8 years old when she left and couldn't really have done anything about it, a part of her always felt horrible that she didn't fight harder, didn't fight her mother tooth and nail to stay with Ash no matter what. He was her best friend, the love of her life, she should have done something, anything besides let her mother cart her away from the only true home she had ever known, and the small boy who had become the center of her entire universe.

Even now, 8 years later, the heartache wouldn't cease, in spite of the possibility of seeing him again real soon. Even worse than the memories of her past opening old wounds was the possibility of Ash moving on, journeying on his own, and worst of all forgetting about her and getting a girlfriend who wasn't her. How could she cope if she met him again and he didn't even know her name, how the hell was she supposed to move on? No matter how much she liked Calem and her new group of friends, she just couldn't let go of Ash, and recently the pain had become unbearable. Most days she managed not to think of him until the most inopportune times, and to her horror, she realized it was starting to affect her ability to perform and make Pokevision videos.

Upon examining her more recent videos, she had been horrified to see the lack of her usual radiant smile or that sparkle in her eyes, the spark of passion her mom said she had gotten back at that summer camp all those years ago, during the most iconic moment of her entire life. It was bad enough to be internally in constant pain and heartache over the loss of Ash, but to add insult to injury it was beginning to show on her face and in her videos, badly enough that less and less people were viewing her recent works.

Arriving at the hotel she was staying in, Serena took a moment to compose herself. She concentrated on the happier memories of her time with Ash, remembering how they used to play in the woods surrounding Pallet town, or went swimming in the ocean between it and Cinnibar Island. Serena remembered Ash blushing when she sported a two piece swim suit for the first time during one of their many swims, despite her nonexistent figure back then it made her giggle even now remembering seeing him so flustered.

Finally satisfied with how she looked and felt, Serena opened the doors into the hotel and walked into the massive lobby. Red flannel carpets were blanketed over a solid concrete floor, the roof whiter than snow and lit by beautiful crystalline chandeliers big enough to squash a human flat in the event of one of them falling. All sorts of decor and paintings depicting various legendary Pokemon hung on the walls everywhere she looked, and the front desk and the attendant waiting there for her was lined up with parents, kids, and various Pokemon including Fletchling, Espurr, and other Pokemon often widely recommended as pets.

Deciding to release her own Pokemon, Serena retrieved Delphox's Pokeball from her purse and threw it into the air, watching it land and open up in a flash of white light, and Delphox stood tall and proud amongst the crowd. 'Delphox, Phox,' it cried, and Serena decided a quick brushing was in order while they waited in line for the crowd to slowly disperse.

Alternating between brushing her starter's glossy fur and keeping an eye on the people in front of her, Serena didn't notice the little girl until she was tugging on the hem of her skirt to get her attention. Serena looked down into the innocent blue eyes of a small girl gazing up at her in awe, evidently someone who recognized her and considered her to be an idol. Smiling down at the little munchkin, Serena knelt down to the girl's eye level, noting that her parents were nervously standing back, clearly debating whether to intervene to give Serena some peace and quiet or letting their little girl talk with someone famous because it would make her happy.

"Can I help you sweetie?" Serena chuckled; her hairbrush quite forgotten in her hand as Delphox huffed slightly and the golden haired beauty winked at the little girl's parents, letting them know in no uncertain terms that all was well. Looking down at the girl; who wore a Teddiursa sweater with ears on the hood, Serena estimated she couldn't be any older than six, and she felt very tall for once standing there looking down at somebody for a change. Serena wasn't super petite but she wasn't exactly a giant either, around five foot six last time she was measured. Her height had paled in comparison to the likes of both Calem and Tierno, both of whom were over six feet tall. Even Shauna was about the same height as her, so the only one in their group who made her feel tall was Trevor, but with the others always around Serena rarely got a chance to feel this way for long.

Not that size really mattered or anything, but Serena often found herself noticing more and more how tall some people were compared to her, how beautiful Aria was, or how handsome Calem and Ash were. It all had to do with growing up and going through puberty, she had been noticing things she hadn't noticed as a kid for a long time now. As her observations matured so did her thoughts and feelings, and more than ever she found herself dreaming intimately about Ash or Calem, depending on her mood, the time of the month, and many other things. At first it started off small, lack of clothing or kissing or both, but as soon as Ash started going all out and making love to her in her dreams, and as soon as she discovered the pleasures that surged through her when this occurred, Serena knew she was growing up at a rather alarming rate.

Funnily enough, with Calem it was merely tender kissing and once in a while dreams of nudity, but with Ash it was full blown smut, and she both hated and loved the fact that she enjoyed these dreams now, because they always made for an embarrassing awakening when she woke up to wet sheets and had to wash her skirt and panties over and over. The dreams were a constant now, she had them nearly every night and the longer her separation from Ash went on, the more intense her dreams became. Each night was more pleasurable than the last, and she loved it despite the fact her body could only handle so much sexual pleasure. She wondered if Ash was dreaming about her too, because sometimes it felt so real and like he was actually lying right beside her in her bed, but that was impossible wasn't it? She had heard that absence made the heart grow fonder but this was ridiculous! Even crushing on Calem felt wrong to her somehow; but she couldn't understand why that was, nor why Ash was becoming more and more of an obsession of hers lately.

Remembering she had a little girl staring up at her in a stupor, Serena quickly gathered herself and Delphox rolled her eyes, having grown proficient enough with her psychic powers to follow Serena's thoughts and feelings. She knew exactly what or rather; who was troubling her trainer, the memories and the image of that boy were slowly working their way into every corridor of Serena's mind, and the fire fox Pokemon knew she missed this Ash Ketchum more and more every day. It was like she was on withdrawal over some life saving drug or more fittingly a love potion, only that withdrawal was getting worse and worse every day instead of better.

Remaining on her knee, Serena's smile widened when the little girl finally found her voice. "Miss, are you the Pokemon performer Serena?" the girl asked, a dreamy expression on her face as the older girl nodded in affirmation. The girl's eyes bulged a little in awestruck wonder, "I saw every Pokevision you made, and I saw you at the master class performance too! You were _awesome_, even if you didn't win! Those people saying mean things about your recent videos are _wrong_, I think you can become Kalos queen, and when you do, I hope you'll remember me!" the little girl squealed like a true fanatic of performing, her excited exclamations drawing a few chuckles from the line of people in front of them.

"You know what, you just made my day! You're a really big fan of Pokemon Showcases aren't you? I promise, if I become Kalos queen one day I'll be sure to mention you as one of my biggest inspirations, though of course I'm going to need your name," Serena sniffed, choking back a sob, feeling touched beyond belief. For whatever reason, it seemed Arceus itself didn't want her to give up on her dreams when she was beginning to falter, and sent an angel or something to give her reassurance. She chose not to voice this thought aloud, but the smile on her face and the tears of joy in her eyes told the entire story.

The girl giggled while Delphox and the girl's parents watched the exchange with hearts in their eyes. "My name is Addie Bellerose, Mademoiselle Serena, thank you so much for talking to me. I want to be just like you when I grow up," Addie murmured shyly. Serena and Delphox exchanged glances as the Vaniville town trainer went into her bag and pulled out a pen and a piece of paper. Quickly signing her name on the makeshift autograph, Serena added a quick personal message as well. '_To my favorite fan Addie, who believed in me when I was starting not to believe in myself, thanks a million, love Serena,_' after finishing her message, Serena gave the paper to Addie with a kind smile, her heart warming to its core upon seeing the little girl's eyes light up like a Christmas tree.

Clutching onto Serena's autograph like her life depended on it, Addie rejoined her parents as both Serena and Delphox noticed the line of people in the lobby were now checked into their rooms. Making her way towards the hotel clerk behind the desk, Serena came face to face with a professionally dressed middle aged woman with fair skin and hair. "Comment pouvez-vous aider une mademoiselle?" the lady asked in perfect Kalosian French. _How can I help you miss_?

"1 réservé une chambre dans cet hôtel il ya quelques heures," Serena responded in equally fluent French. _I reserved a room at this hotel a few hours ago_. The lady nodded and asked for her name, finding it in the hotel's database a few seconds after Serena gave it to her. Nodding in approval, the lady handed Serena her room's card key and told her the number to it. It was number 312 on the 4th floor, and after returning Delphox to her Pokeball, Serena decided she could use the exercise and started up the first flight of stairs leading to the second floor.

Finally five minutes, three or so dozen stairs, and a couple of hallways later, Serena was standing at the door to her new room, slipping the card key for it in front of the scanning mechanism and watching the light on the lock turn from red to green. Wasting no more time, Serena entered the pink carpeted, flower smelling, one person room, and was amazed at what she saw.

The main room was a combination bedroom, living room, and kitchen, with two king-sized beds big enough for trainers and most Pokemon to cuddle in bed together, or on the off chance that she ended up dating someone, Serena could have slept with her boyfriend in one of those beds as well. The television sat on a desk with a dresser directly in front of the two beds, perfectly viewable from both of them, and the fridge stood a few feet from it. The bathroom was probably even bigger than the main room, with a full sized bathtub that could pass for a hot tub big enough for several people or Pokemon, since Pokemon were allowed to roam the hotel freely so long as they were properly trained and kept the noise levels down at night.

Realizing this room was big enough even for her Milotic, Serena released all the members of her team to take a look around, and six flashes of white light lit up the entire room simultaneously; revealing her Delphox, Pangaroo, Sylveon, Milotic, Absol, and Altaria all at once. The room suddenly seemed a lot less spacious and more cramped, but Serena happily called out to all her Pokemon.

"Alright you guys, according to the brochure, there is supposed to be a spa for Pokemon somewhere in this place, so have at her, and try not to get into too much trouble, Pangaroo," Serena instructed, frowning in the panda bear Pokemon's direction, causing it to sweat drop with a nervous chuckle as all six members of her team started to head off, only for Serena to whistle out for them. "Hold it, I need to dial somebody on the hotel staff to come pick you guys up and escort you, security around this place is very tight, can't have the customers losing their Pokemon or getting them stolen from thieves now can we?" Serena pointed out, and when none of her Pokemon disagreed with her a loving smile spread across her face.

Milotic was the very essence of beauty and deadly calmness, and between her and Sylveon's beautiful singing, Serena could count on them to maintain order amongst the more rambunctious members of her team, namely Pangaroo and sometimes Absol. She meant what she said, security was very tight around this place, and the people who worked her had to go through extensive background checks to determine if they were fit to work here. Even an unpaid parking ticket was likely reason enough for them not to hire you here, and Serena was confident her Pokemon would be in good hands as they got the royal treatment in the spa.

After dialing for a member of the staff and waiting for five minutes, Serena heard her knocker drumming on her doorway and made her Pokemon move to let her through so she could open the door. Pangaroo looked like it was considering running off on its own with a mischievous look in its eyes, barrelling through the open door with all due haste and making trouble. It still sported the same sunglasses Serena had given it when she caught it as a Pancham a few years back. It had been stealing backdrops and accessories from various performers until Serena found it and its little hidey hole, offering it the opportunity to perform with her so long as it promised to never again take something that wasn't its own. Since evolving into Pangaroo, it still kept its talent for trouble and its major personality traits. The fascinating thing about evolution was that Pokemon were still the same as they were on the inside, though sometimes they would get a big head and not listen to their trainer, as Serena learned when her Swablu evolved into Altaria and her Eevee when it evolved into Sylveon. Milotic had been so grateful to Serena for evolving it from Feebas that it absolutely adored her even as the level 100 powerhouse it was now. She had been a vital member of Serena's team, having helped her win 6 out of the 10 Pokemon Showcase keys she now had in a special custom made case in her bag.

Reaching the door and opening it, her Pokemon started calling out excitedly as Serena greeted a well groomed, snappily dressed looking man with gelled hair, perfectly manicured hands, fingernails, and a very feminine sounding voice. "Good afternoon mademoiselle Serena, how can I be of service," the man asked with a very thick French accent. When Serena indicated her Pokemon and requested the full spa treatment of her team in fluent Kalosian French, the man looked obviously relieved knowing he didn't have to speak a language he was clearly unfamiliar with.

"Oui oui mademoiselle, vos Pokémon sera bien entretenu!" the man exclaimed happily. (_Yes, yes miss, your Pokemon will be well looked after_) Looking back at her Pokemon, Serena smiled reassuringly, "alright you guys, go have fun, and behave," she laughed softly but with a firm, no nonsense undertone she was sure all her Pokemon heard. Her eardrums were assaulted with the happy cries of multiple Pokemon species as all six members of her most trusted team bolted out the door, Milotic bringing up the tear as it squeezed through the doorway, its serpentine body barely an inch thinner than the doorway.

The man cast an appreciative look as Serena paid him a hefty tip for any trouble her Pokemon might give him in advance, pressing a wad of cash into his hand and greeting him the typical Kalosian way. Planting a kiss on both his cheeks and receiving them in return, Serena smiled as the man withdrew from her open doorway and followed her team members to the spa, giving the golden haired Pokemon performer some time alone.

Resuming her train of thought from before, Serena drew her key case from her bag and counted all ten of her Showcase keys, admiring them while she mused. Most Pokemon Showcase key cases were designed to carry no more than 3 keys per case, since most performers didn't wait in order to compete in the master class. Serena hadn't started out as confident or overly confident as some of the other performers were, since she hadn't known what she wanted to do for a long time during the early days of her journey, so she wasn't confident in her ability to compete in the master class and go all the way. Apparently Aria herself had also gotten a custom made key case so as to continue competing in regular showcases all across Kalos, and so Serena's request wasn't completely unheard of.

There were actually dozens of places throughout Kalos where one could perform, but only some of them were well known, such as Coumarine city and the location of the ever coveted master class Pokemon showcase, Lumiose city. Each place had their own unique Pokemon showcase key, and though most performers were all too eager to enter the master class after obtaining just 3 of these keys, Serena didn't want to be like other performers, and longed to gather all 30 of them before she finally competed in the master class once again. She had yet to win the key from Coumarine city and obviously the master class wasn't exactly on her win list or otherwise she'd be the Kalos queen, but she was hell bent on becoming the best Kalos queen the world had ever seen. (_Author's note: I've only just seen episode 60 of the XY anime and have yet to see it in subs, but I decided to add my own AU mechanics to Pokemon performances since it will be a very central plot in my non battling stories, also I absolutely love Serena's new look despite the mixed reactions to it, in all honesty I actually like it even better and frankly I couldn't care less what other people think_)

With all her determination and excitement festering in her mind, Serena took a running leap and landed on her bed so hard it bounced up in down and made a loud springing noise. She was fully clothed but had her pajamas and other essentials packed in her back, which expanded to accommodate all sorts of items and held her Pokedex, her spare Pokeballs, her electronic travel guide, and other pairs of her usual outfit. Deciding to order dinner and dessert directly from the kitchen, Serena had a hankering for a crème brûlée or some other fancy French dessert, and for her actual entree, something equally sweet such as a medium order of crêpes; with whipped cream, strawberries, and honey, one of her favorite meals.

Her love of sweets was one of Serena's guilty pleasures, though luckily she had strong enough willpower to not overeat. As a result of her restraint, she maintained her proudly attained perfect figure. Certain things could undermine her efforts to count calories every once in a while, such as when her monthly visitor caught her unawares and she had an insane craving for chocolate. During such days and during particularly stressful days managing her willpower became exceedingly more difficult, though she always pulled through in the end, somehow. Her taking the stairs up to her room was partly due to the fact she planned on ordering a really expensive and really high calorie meal. She also planned to go swimming in the hotel pool later on to burn off all the energy she'd gain from it.

Turning on the television after ordering her meal from the kitchen and flicking through the channels, Serena cursed her bad timing. "Damn all this weekend TV to Giratina's realm, there is never anything good on during Saturday evening," she grumbled grumpily while waiting for her food to show. Her Pokemon were probably having a blast without her and she was stuck in here watching crappy TV shows like Pokemon Amie specials, the adventures of Riolu Kid, Swoobatman the animated series, Keldeo and the real life adventures of the swords of justice, and other programs that just didn't interest her.

Scrolling through the TV guide, Serena contemplated going to check on her Pokemon for lack of anything better to do when she saw channel 10 Kalosian news program. Realizing it had been several weeks at least since she last saw the major events transpiring in her native region, Serena decided to turn it on. "Since the now world famous Garchomp incident in Lumiose city just over a week ago, the cleanup of our city has been remarkably swift, even by the standards of the Kalosian Pokemon cleanup crew and the Machoke Workmen. Most people are just thankful that the young man happened to be there," the main Kalos news crewman droned on in his typical practiced monotone fashion.

Another news person, this time a woman who Serena recognized as someone who worked with Alexa at the Lumiose city news station, continued on where the man left off, her smile radiant and her voice laced with bubbly happiness that had a lot of guys crushing on her across Kalos. "Gee, don't sound so amazed Kent, the young man wouldn't give his name but we did manage to get a close-up shot of the Kalos region's own personal hero of the month, and have identified him as none other than world famous elite Pokemon trainer, Ash Ketchum, here is a rerun of that day's events." The remote control fell to the floor beside the bed, and Serena was positively gobsmacked. "Holy Arceus, it _is him_! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT, ASH KETCHUM IS IN KALOS!" she screamed at the televised screenshot of his all too familiar and handsome face. Serena knew that face anywhere, having kept tabs on him throughout his entire journey with every ounce of diligence she could muster, and he had only gotten more handsome since last she saw his face in the newspaper clippings she kept in her room, or saw him competing in the Pokemon league tournaments on TV, or even the lesser known feats of his career such as the times he had allegedly been connected to, namely all those crazy epic battles between living legends she heard he'd played a part in resolving.

His name resounded almost everywhere on the planet, he was one of the most famous Elite level trainers in the world, and she was closer to him than she had been in the last eight years, so close she could almost feel his presence. This was a dream come true for Serena, but now that it was happening as it had happened so many times in her sleep she had to wonder if she was dreaming again. Pinching herself and feeling pain shoot up her arm; Serena had to stifle a scream of pure, unbridled joy and ecstasy. Her heart gave such a thump in her chest she was surprised she wasn't going into cardiac arrest, but seeing him again, even if it was on a recording from over a week ago was almost too much for her to handle. She had to; no she needed to find out where in Kalos he was or if he was still in Lumiose city. Although she didn't know the answer she knew who would, professor Sycamore.

Everyone in Kalos had heard of the Garchomp incident and despite it only happening over a week ago it had become a legend in the minds of millions. Serena had overheard people discussing it as far away as Coumarine city when she was heading back to the heart of Kalos to see for herself, and she knew it wouldn't be long before Ash Ketchum and his heroic feats were the talk of Kalos. Still until now, she hadn't realized that he was the hero who saved Sycamore's Garchomp, and wished she had found that bit of information out sooner so as to have a better chance of catching up to him.

Nevertheless, he couldn't have gotten far, and having followed Ash's travels from day one and knowing him as well as she did, Serena would have guessed he would want to catch some new Pokemon straight from Kalos and train them up before challenging his first Pokemon gym. She always giggled and tried to humor him back when he used to tell her he'd catch all 720 Pokemon in the entire national Pokedex one day, but with over 600 Pokemon species captured by him now, Serena had to wonder who was really humoring who in that situation.

Doing some deductive thinking, Serena had a pretty good idea where her childhood BFF and the love of her life was heading, but wanted to run her theories by professor Sycamore first. Since Lumiose city gym now had a new rule saying no trainer with less than four Kalos gym badges could challenge it, Ash wouldn't be able to challenge it right off the get go, and so would likely head to the closest available gym, which was in Santalune city.

Still, she wasn't Ash Ketchum's childhood bestie for nothing, and knowing him as well she used to, Serena knew that the one thing about Ash Ketchum was that he was unpredictable, and using logic to track his whereabouts could only lead her on a wild goose chase, so it was best to get a second opinion who might have a better idea of where the boy she had dreamed of marrying for years would be heading. "_Tomorrow though, I need to go check on my Pokemon and then catch some Z's. I'm about to meet Ash once again for the first time in eight years and I don't want to screw up that reunion by appearing groggy and tired when I do finally get to see him. Ugh, I'm so excited, I'm not going to be able to sleep_," Serena thought resolutely, switching the Televison off, jumping off her bed with all due haste, and practically galloped her way to the spa. Such was her excitement that she didn't even see the waiter from the Kitchen about to knock on the door as she opened it, nor did she clue in that he was even there until she had knocked them both over in her excitement and sent all of her dinner and desert flying asunder; splattering crepes, whipped cream, crème brûlée, and honey all over herself, the waiter, and the floor of the hallway.

_Author's Note: And that's chapter 1 of my awesomely epic rewrite folks. As I've already mentioned before, these are not the same Ash and Serena you might remember from my old copies, and I've already written some very major deviations from them as well. I'm also aware of how powerful I've made Calem as compared to the original versions of both my stories but I do have my reasons and that's not going to change, nor will I apologise for it. I do apologise however, for the amount of exposition in this chapter, my only defense was that I had a lot of back story to cover and wanted to get most of the important information down. I promise to rectify the exposition problem in my next chapters; chapter 2 for example will contain a ton of action going down in Santalune city; first with capturing Dedenne, then with Team Flare, and finally Ash's first gym battle in Kalos. Be looking forward to it peeps, and as always, read, rate, and review._


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon or its characters, only the plots and potential OCs I may decide to add in later._

_Chapter Rated for swearing, epic battles, mature themes, violence, and pure fluffiness_

Chapter Two: Taking the World by... _Storm_

The Sycamore Pokemon lab looked pretty much the exact same as the last time Serena saw it over a year ago, her visits to Lumiose city during her travels few and far in between but always enjoyable when she reached this grand metropolis once again. The only major difference was the number of Pokemon now present at the lab, and the recent expansions of professor's Sycamore's Pokemon ranch to accommodate the dozens of Pokemon captured by none other than Calem, all of whom were perfectly friendly and familiar with the honey blonde performer.

Serena had gone to collect her Pokemon after apologizing profusely to the waiter, only for the two of them to burst out laughing at the whole situation. His laid back disposition was a good trait in that scenario and Serena was glad they were able to look past the whole ordeal when she explained to him the whole situation. All he did was laugh and make a comment about 'young love,' a statement that had Serena blushing to the roots of her hair though to her credit, she didn't deny or refuse to acknowledge her feelings, something she'd only just recently been able to do, despite her easily flustered nature.

Her Pokemon were annoyed at having their spa treatment interrupted by Serena's rambling, but once she explained the situation yet again they all seemed to understand. After letting them finish their brushings, mud baths and what not, Serena paid the people working at the spa a hefty tip and made her way back to her room with her Pokemon in tow. After finally falling into a fitful slumber plagued by intimate sex dreams involving her and Ash, Serena and her Pokemon made their way straight here, excitement coursing through her as she thought about the boy she totally, unconditionally loved, her crush on Calem vastly outstripped by the mere thought of Ash being so close yet so far.

Not that she and Calem weren't friends, the two of them were tight, but he could never take Ash's place, nobody could if she was being perfectly honest with herself. Now that she was standing here in Sycamore's lab, she couldn't believe she ever thought Calem could make her forget about her childhood BFF, just the thought of crushing on her new friend from Vaniville town felt like a complete and utter insult to Ash's memory, and she knew better now. Her mind and heart were both made up, she'd find Ash; tell him how it made her feel to see him again, and hopefully the two of them could pick up where they left off. She had a lot of unresolved things with Ash and she wasn't leaving Santalune city without telling him what she had been too afraid to say when they were kids, that he was the only guy for her, that no one, Calem or anyone else could take his place.

While thinking of Calem, Serena reflected on the times she'd thought he'd be able to help heal the heartache that stayed with her even to this day, and while she did that, she also knew Calem was an amazing trainer and friend in his own right. In terms of overall strength, he and Ash seemed almost equal to her in her not so professional opinion, so no doubt a battle between them could go either way, but as far as being Ash's rival in any other regard, especially as an object of Serena's affections, it wasn't even a contest, Ash won hands down. In truth, it _was_ actually kind of awesome to be such close friends with such a powerful and well known trainer as Calem, add to that the fact he never let his fame, fortune, or infinite power as an aspiring Pokemon master go to his head and he had a lot going for him, many amazing traits that would attract a lot of great girls. Hell, Shauna was already completely enamored with him, but he was too heavily infatuated with Serena herself to really notice.

He occasionally messaged Tierno and Trevor but called her and Shauna at least twice every week, either to chat or update them on his progress. Upon seeing Ash on the television screen Serena had immediately speed dialed Shauna on her Holo caster and informed her of his arrival, to which she replied with an enthusiastic nod, saying she just found out about it and was about to speed dial her as well. Serena had a Holo Caster with all the latest stuff installed, as did almost everyone in Kalos, since its inventor Lysandre insisted on covering the expenses of every one they sold so that everyone who got it got it for free. His only response to why he was being so generous was that he wanted to be a person who gave instead of took, and taking other people's money for a product meant to benefit mankind didn't sit well with him, so he may lose several hundred million Pokedollars but merely laughed that off as pocket change, claiming he had more to gain from his generosity than he had to lose and all he asked was that people followed his example of generosity, that they pay it forward.

Serena had been fascinated by the man for lack of a better word, he was well known for being a direct descendent of the ancient Kalos King's younger brother and as such had royal blood and access to ancient royal funds which were essentially limitless. Calem was actually quite fond of the man and all of the fancy toys he developed, but favored his Dexnav feature on his Pokenax Plus over almost everything else, simply because it allowed him to scan the vast wilderness of the entire world for all the best Pokemon, with their hidden abilities, an infinite IV spread, and even scan for Pokemon he'd never before seen, it really was a handy tool and Serena was planning on ordering one soon as well, once she set aside enough money that is. Despite Calem's preference to anything developed by Devon Corporation, Lysandre labs was a corporate giant as well now, and almost all the extra money the man made with its products were donated to charitable causes, the rest keeping the business running so as to continue making more money for the people. Clearly Lysandre was serious about asking people to do what they could to help save the world, and she was grateful his generosity had ensured she and all of her friends had Holo casters and could talk to each other whenever they pleased with just the push of a button.

In short, Calem, Shauna, Tierno, and Trevor were all just a holographic call away, and Serena loved talking to them, but especially the former two. Calem had actually captured hundreds of different Pokemon and every Pokemon in the Kalos Pokedex save for the legends, he also captured nearly every non legendary outside of Kalos as well during his travels, but his current champion level team consisted of his A-Team members. Serena had all thirty members of his A-Team memorized off by heart, and would laugh at Calem's reaction when she listed them in order from first slot to last, knowing her friend to be a creature of habit where arranging his team was concerned and trusting of his instincts when in the heat of battle. The only problem with this arrangement was that it made Calem's lineup predictable to any opponent with the brainpower to do research on him, and Ash was just one of the many people who would exploit that predictability, even if he dueled instinctively himself.

Calem's Greninja was first in line, always, and as his first Pokemon it was fully trained to level infinity and had overwhelming experience. It also had its incredibly rare Protean ability, something for which Calem specifically asked for when discussing his first Pokemon choice with professor Sycamore over five years ago when they first started their journeys. Always being guaranteed the same type attack bonus was only truly beneficial for Greninja when it wasn't fully trained, but even now all its moves were ridiculously easy for it to use at their full and limitless levels, to the point where it had to focus a lot harder in order to pull its punches when fighting against a weaker opponent.

Calem's Greninja had been trained to use its protean ability to make an utter fool out of the type matchup system, using it to become resistant and even immune to a number of different attacks, even the all-powerful ones of other level infinity Pokemon. So even though the same type attack bonus was meaningless to it, as was the natural base power levels, stat increasing moves, or abilities that upped the power of the moves of any Pokemon upon being trained to such levels, Greninja was still capable of adapting to multiple opposing powers and attacks using its now infinitely augmented hidden ability. (_Author's Note: Fully trained Pokemon can be difficult to work with; especially since stat increasing moves, abilities that up the power of their attacks, and other such things are useless, since by definition a level infinity Pokemon is an almighty example of their species, they've reached their maximum, infinite potential by this point and cannot possibly get any stronger, however as Calem proved, there are other ways to make use of all-powerful Pokemon's abilities, stats, move pools, and the like, Protean Greninja is actually highly useful as a level infinity Pokemon, and you'll be seeing more of what Calem's starter can do, maybe even later on in this chapter_)

As it turned out, Sycamore had a few Protean Froakies on hand and was willing to part with one so long as it accepted Calem as its trainer. Being a Pokemon with a hidden ability often gave a Pokemon a vastly more difficult personality than a Pokemon with its normal ability; sometimes being special gave such Pokemon a big head and made them feel like only the best trainers were good enough for them. Sycamore then told them a story of one such Froakie who would actually abandon its trainer outright if it didn't think he or she was good enough.

After assuring the professor that Calem was the best at all things Pokemon any of them had seen, Sycamore called over one of the special frog Pokemon, and was surprised when the first one called took an immediate shine to Calem. Serena herself wasn't too picky or choosy at the time, and when she picked Fennekin the look on its adorable face was good enough for her to know she made the right decision, regardless of abilities, levels, stats, IVs, or any of that other junk a ton of competitive battlers nowadays cared about. She wasn't a battler anyways, and remembered when Ash used to tell her that any Pokemon could become strong under the right trainer, IVs and all that stuff ultimately didn't mean anything, because a Pokemon's EVs could rise infinitely and natural talent meant absolutely nothing without the heart of a trainer who valued all Pokemon.

It was just one of the many wise things Ash said to her in their childhood, and she once mentioned that to Calem, causing him to stare at her like she had sprouted a second head. Calem wasn't mean or neglectful, not at all, he loved all his Pokemon equally but all of the ones he caught were ones he'd prefer to have the best potential and abilities, unless a non competitive Pokemon he happened across wanted to come with him badly enough, he wouldn't give it much of a second glance.

Using his trusty Dexnav feature in his Pokenav Plus made catching the best wild Pokemon infinitely easier for Calem, and virtually every time she called him he was using that bloody thing to seek out yet another Hexa Perfect, hidden ability Pokemon. His A-Team consisted mainly of Kalos native Pokemon and Serena was at least pleased to know not all of them had their hidden abilities or an infinite IV spread, but then again it was before he obtained the Pokenav plus so she couldn't be too sure if he only caught them because he didn't know how good they were. Regardless though, all of them were fully trained now, so IVs didn't mean anything to them anymore anyways.

Calem had his protean Greninja, a gale wings Talonflame, gooey Goodra, huge power Diggersby, Pixilate Sylveon, Chesnaught, Delphox, a mega evolved Charizard, Venesaur, Blastoise, Altaria, Absol, Pidgeot, Slowbro, Steelix, Gallade, Gardevoir, magic guard Alakazam, Salamance with moxie in its normal form, Tyranitar, Metagross, a friend guard Vivillon, a Gogoat, a prankster Meowstic, Aegislash, a mold breaker Hawlucha, a Clawlitzer, Blissey, Snorlax, and a Wailord. Each and every one of these Pokemon were fully trained to infinite levels, making them gods amongst their species and as far as Serena was concerned it was ridiculous how powerful Calem had become, watching him battle strong opponents she could swear she was watching a battle between two clashing deified armies.

Arriving at Sycamore's lab and seeing all of Calem's other Pokemon playing together in the lab reminded Serena that he still rotated his roster around, because some of them were looking a good deal stronger than last she saw them. She could see pairs of his Pokemon training through the window leading to the back ranch, the stairs leading up to the second floor of the lab to its right as Serena gazed around for any sign of Sycamore or his lab assistant Sophie.

"Hello, is anyone there?" Serena wondered aloud, catching a glimpse of a white lab coat amidst the Pokemon outside and scolding herself for her stupidity. Of course there would be someone supervising the Pokemon while they were outside, the rest of the time they were in their Pokeballs safely tucked away in the Pokeball storage rooms up on the third floor. Cursing herself for her stupid blunder, Serena made her way out back, remembering her team's reaction when she had pulled them out of the spa resort early and informed them of what she saw on the television.

She had been keeping tabs on Ash more diligently than anyone else, and had followed his travels right from day one, always watching his Pokemon league tournament battles and hogging the TV when they came on, his battles excited her the most. Almost two years ago he competed in the final match of the Sinnoh Pokemon League tournament, against a trainer named Tobias who used powerful legendary Pokemon like Darkrai to win his matches for him. Ash had beaten his Darkrai with that insane mega Sceptile of his and used his Pikachu and mega Charizard to pretty much dominate the rest of his opponent's team. Pikachu defeated his Latios, a feat which earned that mouse a legendary calibre amongst its species.

In short, Serena was absolutely riveted watching the one she loved dominate a legendary Pokemon user, and with no legendary Pokemon of his own. Ash's ability to think on his feet and his come from behind wins always succeeded in nearly stopping Serena's heart, and she was confident his battling skills were on par with Calem's even if he never actually went all the way in a Pokemon league.

Unlike Calem, Ash didn't have what one would call an A-Team per say, he rotated his hundreds of different Pokemon so much it was hard to know which one he was going to pull out. Watching him become the first trainer to ever beat all seven facilities in the Kanto Battle Frontier made her heart swell with pride for him, and now she could get all the information she needed to track him down and finally see him again. She was both ecstatic and terrified, wondering how he would react when he saw her, knowing deep within her heart that he would never forget her but still worried he wouldn't remember her as fondly as she would like. Nevertheless, it was something she _had_ to do; there was no turning back now.

"Um excuse me, but is professor Sycamore here?" Serena wondered, finally stepping outside into the expanded garden ranch and making her through the teeming masses of Pokemon greeting her with cheer. She was answered by an all too familiar, masculine voice, "why yes, that would be me." The Pokemon cleared a path for her just as she saw none other than professor Sycamore himself getting up from off the ground and dusting himself off.

"Oh, hey Serena, sorry about the mess around here, I was just interacting with Calem's Dedenne over here and I needed to get down to its eye level. I apologise if I look a little rough around the edges," Sycamore greeted kindly, noting his grass stained pants and his dirt caked lab coat and shirt. Serena smiled and gave a noncommittal shrug. "No worries, I'm not the cleaning police, just prefer not to get dirty myself is all," Serena chuckled, and Sycamore nodded, his assistant Sophie greeting Serena as well with a casual wave in the distance, evidently studying one of Calem's many mega evolved Pokemon.

"So how's your mega evolution research going?" Serena wondered; wanting this visit to start off with pleasure instead of business, as was custom when she was garnering information from someone. Sycamore seemed pleased by her interest in his field of research, and immediately launched into an explanation, forcing Serena to stifle a giggle at his enthusiasm, his mad passion for all things Pokemon reminiscent of Ash, and considering he was who she had ultimately come to discuss with the professor, that shared personality trait was not lost on her.

"My research is going amazingly Serena; with Calem's Pokemon I've been able to obtain more data on mega evolution than ever before. Did you know that there are mega stones and newly discovered mega evolved Pokemon in the Hoenn region? Apparently the super ancient Pokemon Groudon and Kyogre can also go through what ancient Hoenn natives referred to as primal reversion, a form of evolution like and yet not like mega evolution," Sycamore paused to draw a breath, having said all that in one breath and surprising Serena with his lung capacity as she started taking mental notes of what he said. She was actually surprised by how much vested interest she had in this subject now. So mega evolution was in the Hoenn region as well, that wasn't actually too surprising considering both Ash and Calem could do it and neither of them obtained their mega bracelets in Kalos, Serena would know if they had, having met the mega evolution guru with Shauna, Tierno, and Trevor to watch them obtain mega rings for their starters, she had been keeping tabs on everyone and had Korrina on speed dial on her Holo caster. Besides, Ash had only just gotten to Kalos and Calem already confirmed his mega bracelet came from Hoenn.

"That's awesome professor, maybe someday it will be possible for every Pokemon to mega evolve," Serena stated conversationally, feeling intrigued by the idea of legendary Pokemon like Groudon and Kyogre having some kind of prehistoric devolution and wondering where this information came from or if anyone had seen the two of them in the last century. She remembered Ash getting entangled with certain legendary Pokemon in recent years, having heard all about Shamouti Island and what happened with the legendary birds. Apparently some blabbermouth on Shamouti had let slip that Ash Ketchum was the Chosen One and had saved the world from the great titans of fire, ice, and lightning.

Knowing he could have died in that situation scared Serena shitless, but she was so proud to have a friend so willing to risk his life for the rest of the world. She had never known anyone with such an amazing capacity to care before meeting him all those years ago. She still carried the handkerchief he used to bandage her knee with her everywhere she went. It was her good luck charm and yet it was so much more. It was the symbol of her most precious friendship, and for that reason she cherished it almost as much as she cherished Ash himself. It was her most prized possession, surpassing even her collection of Pokemon Showcase princess keys and all her other keepsakes from her journey. Her Pokemon were her friends and family right now so they didn't count as her possessions, but if she were being totally upfront about her feelings she'd have to admit that the love she harbored for her Ash was probably greater and more intense than the familial bond she forged with all six of her Pokemon.

She didn't even know when he'd gone from being just Ash to her Ash but the transition was a welcome one. She could only hope that he was still hers even after all this time, but right now she needed to focus on hearing Sycamore out. She asked him a question about his research to be polite, but she was actually interested in it too. A lot of things actually interested her and Serena was quite talented in a lot of different fields; including cooking, baking, performing, and drawing, singing, writing, dancing, and even Pokemon battling. She wasn't an active, competitive battler like Calem, but she was definitely good enough to get by in a pinch, and her Pokemon were strong enough to hold their own as well, seeing as how she trained them all up. She didn't think herself some kind of prodigy, but she had a diverse enough skill set to afford a relatively comfortable life style, as demonstrated by her ability to make money.

She almost missed the response Sycamore gave her while she studied one of Calem's Kanto native Pokemon, which Serena noticed, was a Clefable. She proceeded to sit down in the grass despite her protesting mind complaining about dirt due to being tired of standing in one spot, and all the Pokemon seemed to gather around her as one, both belonging to Calem and other nameless trainers she didn't know.

"Hey stop that tickles," Serena giggled while a couple of Gogoat and Skiddo licked her face, obviously very affectionate and very used to people. Sycamore and Sophie continued to stand, the absent minded professor seeming to remember he had a guest as he turned around to face her. "Oh I'm sorry, I suppose I should respond to your last statement shouldn't I? Yes I do think it a wonderful notion to believe that all Pokemon secretly carry with them the potential for evolving past their final stage. Incidentally recent discoveries in the Hoenn region have turned preconceived notions and theories in the Kalos region's mega evolution lore upside down," Sycamore stated, and Serena wondered what he meant.

She was just about to ask him to elaborate when the professor beat her to it, Sophie listening in from a distance while placing a bowel of food in front of what looked like very same Garchomp from the incident a week ago. "I mean that mega evolution was originally believed to have been born in Kalos, but recent evidence in the Hoenn region has been brought to light that may suggest that the mechanics for mega evolution were discovered as the result of human encounters with the legendary Pokemon Rayquaza, who was likewise recently discovered to be capable of mega evolution upon swallowing special meteorites that bare similar properties to key stones," Sycamore continued, causing Serena to almost choke on her own spit as she swallowed it.

"Wait a minute, you're saying Rayquaza can mega evolve to? I thought with that primal reversion thing Groudon and Kyogre do it would be the same deal with the third member of the weather trio," Serena stated, having studied legendary Pokemon lore throughout the years and quite knowledgeable about the subject, at least she liked to think so, but all this information was completely new to her and she found herself being caught up in utter fascination over it in spite of herself, despite her original intentions when coming here.

Ash could wait a little while longer, he wouldn't get too far, so maybe Serena could stick around a little bit and learn more about what the professor uncovered. She may not have been a Pokemon battling fiend like Ash or Calem, but like any Pokemon trainer the legends of old fascinated her. The stories she had grown up hearing, of the various legendary Pokemon across the world, some capable of feats that were just a few leagues beyond that of regular Pokemon whereas others were literal gods. The creation stories of the Sinnoh region had been the object of awe and wonder for her growing up, her mother reading these things to her when she and Grace lived in Pallet town.

Speaking of her mother, Serena hadn't called her in a while, and mentally added giving her mom an update on her itinerary to her list of things to do. "Yes, various sources and my contacts in Hoenn have confirmed this, though recently one of the Rayquaza seems to have vanished off the grid, and satellites can no longer track it in the ozone layer. Upon being questioned by several concerned researchers, the Pokemon league officials remain tight lipped on the subject, only saying it had been captured by a worthy trainer and was in good hands. As for the rest of the known Rayquaza population, satellites tracked one in a place off of route 131 in Hoenn as well as a very rare black Rayquaza that appeared seemingly out of nowhere near Kalos; sources say that it disappears and reappears without a trace and that strange portals have been appearing all over the world, grouping together in Hoenn and other regions and summoning various legendary Pokemon from out of nowhere, some individuals even swear they've seen an Arceus." (_Author's Note: Yes I just referenced Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire's Hoopa-portal legends in Hoenn and the upcoming 18__th__ Pokemon movie, be expecting a completely AU take on this entire situation, because while I am sure the movie will be excellent I think I can do a better job, or at least my own spin on it that is better suited to this story)_

Serena could hardly believe what she was hearing, she was astounded by all of it but hearing that somebody has captured Rayquaza took the cake as the biggest news in her mind. The fact it was captured and the Pokemon League officials had so little to say about it spoke volumes of how inept they've become since losing their leader. The world champion Red was supposed to be in charge of the whole system and keeping things like this from happening, but ever since Red vanished off the grid the Pokemon leagues have become their own bosses pretty much. She probably didn't need to worry but she couldn't help it, a Pokemon that powerful should not be in the hands of any one person, not many people could really handle a legendary and those that could never caught any of the godlike ones like Rayquaza, it was just unnatural to her.

Lots of people had captured some of the legendary birds, the Regi trio members, the legendary dogs, and even Pokemon like Darkrai, Cressellia and the eons, but those were what people considered to be the more manageable legends. Pokemon like Rayquaza should not be obtained as a Pokemon in any normal, run of the mill trainer's roster. Even the Elite Four and regional champions would have a difficult time taming such legends! Who in their right mind would take on that kind of responsibility?!

She knew regional champions did technically have some authority and pull amongst the Pokemon league officials, particularly so in their regions, which they were pretty much in charge of, but the Pokemon League president was meant to be in charge of inter-regional concerns. The League president was meant to represent the world champion's authority when dealing with each region individually, and was supposed to make major decisions only when the world champ gave the all clear, but recently the current president had gotten a bit old and was in over his head since Red's disappearance, so he had taken charge and the world champion had been declared missing in action. Long story short, the president could approve of legendary captures if the trainer in question proved him or herself worthy of the league, and without the consent of the current Pokemon Master, but only until either Red reappeared or was confirmed as dead, either way, the president was calling the shots now.

She gazed questioningly at professor Sycamore, wondering what else he knew. "So answer me this, where do you get all your information? Because you seem to know a lot about more than just mega evolution," she inquired, and Sycamore beamed at her. "I have a colleague by the name of professor Cosmo in the Hoenn region who is a meteorologist and studies the properties of the meteors at Meteor falls. Now that place supposedly has ties to the origins of mega evolution as well, and Cosmo's studies eventually brought him to the legends of Hoenn, where he helped discover Rayquaza's connection to the meteoroids and the mega evolution form it acquired in ancient times by ingesting said meteors. There is also my old lab assistant Alain who's dream is to become the world's best mega evolution user, him and his Mega Charizard have been studying mega evolution lore out on the field for me, though I haven't heard much from him lately. I also received a great deal of Intel from professor Oak who displayed a surprising level of knowledge on the subject, claiming one of his sponsored trainers had been all over Hoenn trying to learn everything he could about mega evolution, the same remarkable trainer who saved my Garchomp and all of Lumiose city only a week ago," Sycamore informed her, not aware of the sudden burst of excitement that surged through Serena upon realizing that he was speaking about Ash.

"Professor, that is actually why I came here," she started, unsure of how to phrase that she was simply looking for information on Ash's whereabouts and didn't intend to stay here all day talking about this stuff, no matter how interesting it may have been. "Yes I'm aware," Sycamore said simply, and Serena frowned in confusion. Sycamore merely chuckled, "when Ash mentioned he had a friend who used to live here I asked him about it and he simply said her name was Serena, the poor lad didn't seem to be aware your family had returned here after moving away from Pallet town, and I didn't want to get his hopes up about seeing you anytime soon so I didn't really mention it, since I didn't know where you were at the time, plus it'd make for a very pleasant surprise. To be honest I'm a little surprised you haven't found him yet; the media has been making him out to be a hero for the last week now," Sycamore commented nonchalantly, and Serena had to fight the urge to sigh in exasperation.

"Yes, I wanted to ask you if you knew where he was headed when the two of you last spoke, I only just got around to watching the news last night. I've been a little busy on the road as of late so I haven't had much TV time. I'm sorry professor, I'd really love to stick around some more but the longer I stay here the further away he could get, I need to find him," Serena whispered frantically, and Sycamore felt a stab of sympathy pierce his chest upon looking at the saddened, wistful expression on the young woman's face. "He was more than just a friend to you, wasn't he? That's funny, given how close you and Calem seemed to be, I always thought he was the one you loved but now I don't think so," Sycamore said with a smile, Sophie coming over the check what was going on as Serena realized she was crying.

'_But I never cry, I haven't cried since I was still a little girl, since the day I left him_,' Serena sighed inwardly, realizing that she still retained some of the feelings of loss and emptiness that often accompanied her back in Vanville town when she first moved there. She could remember running out into the forest on route one, trying to return to some semblance of normalcy by playing in the forests like she used to with Ash, but without him there beside her it just wasn't the same.

The day she left was the hardest day of her life, leaving him like that, leaving the one person she totally loved, was harder on her than she could ever admit to her mom or her new friends. For a long time she didn't even feel like living anymore, because without him there for her every day she just didn't see the point in going on. He taught her how to smile, how to take risks, how to actually live, and she always felt so _alive_ when he was around. Losing that had been enough to leave her a complete emotional wreck, yet every night she fell asleep there he was, laughing, playing with her, telling her to never give up no matter what, promising her that he'd come find her in Kalos and that he'd protect her and be with her just like he used to be. She would never admit this to anyone, but the hope of seeing him again, of traveling together with him like she originally planned, and those dreams at night where he said he would always be there for her, were the only things that kept her going in the years that followed. Even now, with everything that had happened since then she still broke down from time to time, and she felt like she should resent him on some level for all the emotional upheaval he brought into her life, but somehow she just couldn't, she loved him too much for that.

"If you want to find him he should still be in Santalune city, from what I've been told the gym leader there is due back tonight, so I wouldn't be surprised if he was getting in some training right now," Sycamore said, trying to cheer her up as Serena nodded, feeling embarrassed for breaking down in front of him and Sophie like that. "I'm sorry for this, I promise that I'm usually a lot more stable guys," Serena apologized, but Sycamore waved it off as Sophie handed her a tissue, having not really said anything this whole time but offering silent comfort and a kind smile.

Dabbing at her eyes with the cloth, Serena gave a watery chuckle as Sycamore shot down her apology. "No need to be sorry Serena, everyone is prone to their moments of weakness and we can never be too sure when they'll overcome us. Actually something Ash said to me when I was feeling guilty about Garchomp's stressful day stuck with me all this time and I think it fits your situation as well. He said 'sooner or later we all go through a crucible. You know most people believe there are two types of people who go through a crucible, the ones who grow stronger from the experience and survive it, and the ones who die, but there is actually a third type. The ones who learn to love the fire, they choose to stay in their crucible because it's easier to embrace the pain when it's all you know anymore. I help people like you and Garchomp so you don't ever become accustomed to living like that, nobody should have to live like that,' the look on his face as he said all that told me he was speaking from personal experience, but he was right Serena. You need to be greater than what you suffer, and right now I think Ash needs you as much as you need him, if not even more so," Sycamore advised her, his wisdom shocking Serena to her core as she processed that poetic yet heartbreaking quote from Ash.

She knew Sycamore was right in a way, but knowing Ash actually felt that way even for a moment was almost enough to reduce her to tears again. Her resolve to find him strengthened tenfold, Serena got to her feet as steadily as she could muster in her current state. "Thank you for the talk professor, it was illuminating but I should get going. If Ash really is in Santalune city then he's going to need his good luck charm back," Serena announced, indicating the blue handkerchief tied around her wrist. Sycamore smiled and nodded; glad he was able to help Serena in his own way. From what he was able to garner from Ash's words and expressions, the boy was indeed lonely, and even with Clement and Bonnie with him it didn't seem to be enough. The thought of such a bright young man going through so much private pain made the young professor sick to his stomach, and if Serena could help him win against whatever inner demons were clearly tormenting him then by the gods he wasn't about to give the girl any misleading information if he could help it.

He considered all his sponsored trainers to be like extended family, and Serena, Shauna, Trevor, and Tierno were all regular visitors to the lab, sometimes even sleeping over there for days at a time while in Lumiose city. Serena's closeness to her childhood friend was never a private matter and Shauna wasn't exactly quiet, so Sycamore had been quite privy to a lot of information regarding the Kanto boy and due to talking with professor Oak actually knew a good deal more than they did. Oak hadn't betrayed the boy's confidences so much as given Sycamore a very clear idea of the power Ash possessed as a trainer. Oak hinted that Ash's reluctance to challenge the Elite Four and go all the way in Pokemon leagues had a lot to do with his humility and nothing to do with his actual power levels. Oak was willing to put his reputation on the line by saying Ash was quite possibly on par even with Calem, both boys a common topic of discussion between the two professors, since they were the top trainers sponsored by each professor respectively.

Ash didn't seem to think he was good enough to take on the Elite Four, but Oak also hinted that he was very thoughtful about the future and his end goal of attaining the world championship, wanting to have reasons to backtrack through the other regions when he finally finished traveling all of Pokeearth. Sycamore had been surprised to hear how single minded and determined Ash was to follow in his father's footsteps, yes Sycamore did eventually find out about Ash's father after a good deal of badgering Oak for information, with the older professor remaining tight lipped on the subject, which only furthered Sycamore's curiosity.

Finally he called up Oak's lab one morning and was surprised when an unfamiliar woman's face lit up the screen with a kind smile, saying she was house sitting while professor Oak was outside with her son's Pokemon, revealing herself to be Delia Ketchum. After a lengthy chat about her son, Sycamore was beginning to get the impression Ash's mom loved talking about him, and what mother wouldn't with a son like that. It was just one of those situations that made him wish he could have been a parent.

Finally Delia had mentioned that Oak had been talking about Sycamore to her during dinner one time and how she knew what he wanted to know. Eventually she told him about Fredrick Ketchum, and how he adopted the name Red to protect his family from the fame, fortune, and publicity her son and family would get if people knew the truth. Delia said that Ash was far better off growing up away from all of that until he was ready. Sycamore meanwhile, was speechless and for good reason. It wasn't every day when someone told you they had sired the child of the most powerful Pokemon master in all of history. No wonder Ash always pushed himself so hard, he was trying to live up to everything his father accomplished, and with a father like Red, that could seem like an impossible feat at times even for the most gifted child.

Sycamore promised Delia he wouldn't say anything, and he never did; as a scientist he always believed that knowledge should be shared but in this case he could make an exception, besides Sycamore was a man of his word, and Delia could be very persuasive. He never mentioned it to his colleagues or his friends, not even to Serena for fear of letting something slip she didn't already know. Plus with all the publicity he was getting right now and how he seemed to try and avoid it like the plague, the last thing Ash would want was another reason for people to idolize him.

Serena was just getting ready to leave as his brain processed all this information; and he could only hope her memories of the boy weren't tainted by the person he had become now. He was worried that the Ash she lost may not be the one she finds, but he decided there was nothing he could do to change that. Serena's mind was made up and Sycamore could tell she and Ash needed each other, even if they didn't know it yet. He didn't know why he felt so strongly about helping the two of them find each other, but he did know that best friends reuniting was the combined theater of romance and adventure, truly this was a love story for the ages.

"Thank you for everything professor, I should get going now, bye," Serena said while slowly heading towards the back entrance of the lab, though she stopped when she felt something soft brush against her leg, and looked down to see an Espeon rubbing up against her in affection, recognizing it as one of Calem's Eeveelutions. It actually had its hidden ability Magic Bounce and was part of Calem's b-team roster, fully trained like nearly all his Pokemon, radiating so much potent energy that Serena felt the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck stand on end from the kinetic energy charging through her molecules.

"Aw, aren't you sweet," Serena cooed, gushing at the sight of the placid psychic type and giving it a quick petting before getting back up, Sycamore and Sophie waving goodbye and smiling fondly at the exchange between her and Calem's all-powerful psychic type. Being as familiar with Kalos as she was meant she didn't even need her fancy travel guide all that much anymore, and she knew the quickest way to Santalune city from Lumiose was through Route 4, which wasn't actually too far down South Boulevard from Sycamore's Pokemon laboratory.

Knowing where she needed to go, Serena detached herself from the cuddly Espeon and quickly made her way through the first floor of the Sycamore lab. Within seconds she was back out where she came through the front door, walking down the crowded, mid morning Lumiose city streets, several passersby gazing at her in obvious recognition as she walked by them. Quickly ignoring the stares, Serena carried onwards, unfettered by the fact that her Pokevisions and numerous victories in Pokemon showcases have rendered her quite famous.

She was already starting to get fan mail, and her mom had to ward off the press every time they knocked on her door, attempting to grab an interview with her now regionally famous daughter. Most of her fan mail was friendly enough, her mom kind enough to transport them to her unopened, but some of them were from creepy perverts asking her to send them photos of her, clothing optional. Instead she sent them a restraining order, wondering to herself how these people were stupid enough to leave their names and addresses, making her attempt to issue her restraining orders that much easier.

Since she started making it clear that she wasn't the kind of girl to take that kind of crap, people stopped attempting to harass her so much. Nevertheless, some of those guys had been arrested for trying to break the restraining order and attempting to corner her when she was alone, forcing her Delphox to knock them and their Pokemon out until the police showed up, her power levels evidently coming as a surprise to these guys.

Clearly Calem's advice was paying off in a big way; people didn't expect a performer to be packing as much of a wallop as she did, and Serena devoted more of her time to battling and training her Pokemon to frightening new heights in power. It was her response to the sadistic bastard who attempted to kidnap her and who she found out was a suspected rapist with a history of trying to kidnap the many young women who competed in Pokemon showcases. He was actually a wanted criminal for some time now and Serena helped catch him, knowing that ultimately she had Calem to thank for her level 100 Pokemon, for them having the power to protect her.

Such was her reverie that she didn't immediately notice she was already at the gates leading to Route 4. She only regained awareness of her surroundings when she almost bumped into someone going the other way, "hey, mind yourself mademoiselle," an old French veteran trainer called out to her as Serena apologized profusely, unable to believe she'd almost bowled someone over. Then again Ash always had the ability to occupy her mind and heart, make her lose herself in him, and even when she was thinking about him indirectly like she was now, he was without a doubt the single most important person in her life, the center of her entire universe.

In all fairness, she hadn't always known what her feelings for him were; she didn't know how much she truly loved him until it was already too late, until he was gone from her life. It was a bitter irony how that worked out, and she'd give almost anything to know what she now knew when she was 8, 7, or even 6 years old. She didn't figure out her feelings for him until it became clear she may never see him again. Somehow knowing that Ash needed her as much as the other way around was enough to motivate her to keep putting one foot in front of the other, despite her fears, in spite of not knowing for sure if he even wanted to see her. This was some immutable version of fate, and Arceus had given Serena a second chance to make up for lost time, to confess her deep irrevocable love for Ash and hopefully one day soon, make him hers and hers alone. She had laid her claim on Ash years ago, and kept trying to reassure herself that he was still single just to keep from going insane. Even if he wasn't though, she'd always love him, and hoped that someway somehow the universe would find a way to repay her for all this time spent waiting, waiting for him to find his way back into her life, like she always somehow secretly knew he would.

Sycamore had confirmed that he at least remembered her, but _was_ he still single? It wasn't exactly uncommon knowledge that Ash Ketchum was desirable number one across the entire world, every girl she knew from Vaniville town wanted him as badly as the many boys throughout Kalos wanted her. She'd always known deep down he'd eventually make it here, having followed up on him since day one, she counted down the days in her head leading up to his arrival, always remembering their childhood motto every time she performed and won a new Princess Key. He inspired her to never give up even to this day, and so help her she wasn't about to let anything stop her from seeing him again. People in Kalos didn't typically follow the news in other regions and only people who knew Ash would think to look for him on the inter-regional channels, so Ash was probably not as well known here as he was elsewhere though that may soon change. Due to his antics in Lumiose city just over a week ago, more and more people were wondering who Ash Ketchum was and more people in Kalos knew who he was now.

After watching the news program, Serena had pulled up everything she could about Ash's recent adventures in Unova online, using her holo caster to tap into the Kalos news feed and reviewed all the last week's news of her childhood love. Now she knew the name Ash Ketchum was becoming increasingly famous in Kalos as well, it was only a matter of time before he became as famous as the world champion, especially with his penchant for saving the planet in every end of the world situation that befell Pokeearth in the last six years. If Ash was as camera shy and eager to avoid the media as Sycamore hinted at, then he was about to get far more than his desired quota of fame and publicity due to his most recent stunt.

Re-watching the video of him tossing himself off Prism tower to save a Froakie that fell off it was almost as terrifying as she imagined, but she forced herself through it this morning, unable to look away as her mind envisioned all of these horrifying scenarios where that mega Blaziken didn't show up, and Ash and Froakie's bodies were smeared all over the pavement. It had been one of the more nightmarish parts of her dreams last night, and finally she sat herself down and watched the full video, constantly telling herself he was alright and not dead from an eight hundred foot drop. Still, she wouldn't completely relax until she saw him again, and no force in the universe, all-powerful or otherwise, was going to keep her from reuniting with the one person in her entire life who meant more to her to anyone and everyone else in it. He may not have realized it yet, but he was hers, he'd always been hers, and nothing was ever going to change that...

XXXXXX

Very rarely did Pikachu ever find itself in such a precarious situation, in fact it only found itself in these kinds of scenarios, ones that could actually threaten its life, when faced with the potentially planet busting strength of a rampaging legendary, or when Team Rocket had it cornered in recent years, just like they did now. It supposed it should have been used to it though; Ash was even more trouble prone than his father had been, and even now at 40 plus years of age, Pikachu was still keeping his trainer safe from all manner of threats, winning against odds that completely superseded the accomplishments of all other members of its species on this planet.

It could get by just fine if it was just by itself, hell, Arceus knows it and Red had battled against truly terrifying opponents in years long since passed. Red had fully trained it like all of his Pokemon using the brutal training regimens his first trainer prized, but Pikachu had lacked his trainer's faith in his own son, whom it was to protect in all the days of his journey. As a personal favor, Pikachu had asked Red's near omnipotent Mew to limit its powers so that if Ash turned out to be an irresponsible trainer he wouldn't be able to misuse Pikachu's full powers. Red had reluctantly agreed to this once his Mewtwo had conveyed to him what it and his Mew were trying to say, but insisted that Pikachu at least remain level 100 in the event his new trainer needed help, and thus a deal was struck between the two.

As a result, when Ash first got his starter Pokemon, the only stat Pikachu had that was still maxed out was its speed, and all of its stats and the IVs for those stats were now suppressed to finite but still immense levels. So Ash got his level 100 starter, but at least he wouldn't have gotten the chance to be irresponsible with a level infinity Pokemon that was accustomed to battling with Pokemon on its own godlike caliber. In the end though, all of Pikachu's worries about his new trainer were for naught, and now the two of them were inseparable, two peas in a pod, connected on a level deeper than it and Red had been, something which Pikachu once thought would be impossible, yet here it was.

Long story short, even with only its attack, special attack, and speed stats maxed out due to training with Ash, Pikachu still very rarely found itself in so precarious a position as this. All of these thoughts were running through the mouse Pokemon's head while attempting to hide from the now impressive forces of Team Rocket's Jessie, James, and Meowth, all of whom pulled out all the stops to nab him and his current tag along, a little Dedenne that made Pikachu wonder if Arceus was a creature of repetitions where Pokemon creation was concerned, because the physically similar traits between this creature and itself was not lost on the yellow mouse.

Dedenne and he were currently hiding out in one of the many bushes along Route four between Santalune city and Lumiose, and Pikachu was no longer too surprised to see Wobuffet back with the Team Rocket trio. Recently though Jessie and James had gone and reacquainted themselves with Arbok, Weezing, both Victreebel, a newly evolved Cofagrigus, Jellicent, Swoobat, as well as Seviper, Dustox and its shiny mate, Yanmega, and most recently an Inkay and Pumpkaboo.

Pikachu wondered how they both now had more than 12 Pokemon between the two of them including Meowth, since they weren't elite level trainers. It vaguely remembered Meowth saying how it hacked the Pokeball systems and wrote a worm that would lift the power limiters placed on Team Rocket's Pokemon as well as over-riding the no more than six Pokemon rule unless you're an elite or champion level trainer. All and all, it was very clever of Meowth and lately Team Rocket had actually become dangerously competent, much to Ash and Pikachu's endless surprise and frustration. Pikachu had actually ended up separated from Ash while trying to find Dedenne, to help the little blonde girl Bonnie and her brother Clement befriend and catch it. Right now though, it was kind of wishing it had Ash's Charizard or Sceptile backing him up rather than this still wet behind the ears electric type, since they were outnumbered like ten to one by Pokemon that could rival Pikachu in power even individually.

The only advantage Pikachu had was its absolute speed, which none of their Pokemon had, but with Dedenne here it had to slow down so the little hamster could keep up, never mind try to hold its own against the utter monsters now hot on their trail. It considered sending a massive thunderbolt to alert Ash to its current position, but knew it would also paint a very big target on its head to Team Rocket, not wanting to alert both parties and trusting in Ash's aura.

"_Hold on Pikachu, Charizard is closing in on your position right now, but I'm stuck behind with Clement and Bonnie and I can't exactly leave them on their own right now, they're worried about you and Dedenne since you haven't come back from your little side adventure and I didn't want to increase their anxiety by mentioning that Team Rocket was on your tails, but don't worry, Charizard will be there just in time okay?_" Ash promised him, and Pikachu sighed in relief, not only did Ash know he was in trouble but his Charizard was also fully trained, meaning it could provide some much needed backup in pretty much all fields of Pokemon combat. It also would never admit this to Ash, but Pikachu really did love how convenient his trainer's abilities were. With them, Ash could track any Pokemon in the world from any point in it, which was how he had caught a lot of his unique, hidden ability Pokemon in recent years that were worthy only of the Chosen One.

Pikachu was jarred out of his reverie by Dedenne brushing past him and talking frantically under its breath. "_To think, this whole day started with me just wanting to eat a berry, and now all this happened,_" Dedenne mused in Pokespeech, and Pikachu couldn't help snorting in response. "_Welcome to my world, I have to deal with my trainer's trouble prone tendencies almost on a daily basis, to be honest not a day goes by where we aren't dealing with some random, epic shit or going on some crazy adventure, what I wouldn't give to be able to just settle down for a while_," Pikachu sighed, imagining taking another vacation like back in Kanto when it was just him and all the other Pokemon for miles, no trainers cramping their style or asking them to battle every trained Pokemon they met, in all honesty being a trained Pokemon could be quite exhausting, and Pikachu could barely remember being wild, for those days were a very long time ago.

"_I don't know, sounds kind of exciting if you ask me, to be honest I've always wanted a dependable trainer_," Dedenne cooed with a longing exhale, and Pikachu smirked. "_Sure, you say that now, but just wait; you're going to be eating those words some day, maybe not immediately after you're captured or even within the first year, but trust me you'll long for things to settle down all in due time. I'm not saying I don't love Ash or the fact that I'm a highly trained Pokemon, and I'd be lying through my teeth if I said high level battles didn't still excite me as much as they ever have back in the old days with my first trainer, but I long for the day when I can just settle down and retire, maybe start a family or watch Ash start one of his own, Arceus knows that kid deserves to be happy after all the crap he's dealt with_," Pikachu admitted wistfully, memories both old and new flooding its mind like a Kyogre's fifty foot tall surf attack.

Dedenne was just about to reply when Pikachu quickly realized they'd been in one place for too long, able to hear James's footfalls and heavy breathing just a few dozen meters away or so, much too close in the mouse's opinion. Both Pokemon fell silent as mice as they attempted to crawl from the bushes they hid in as noiselessly as possible, only for the Rocket grunt's all too familiar voice to call out. "Jessie, Meowth, come quick, I found them," and just like that, the footfalls were heading rapidly in their direction and James was right behind them. Pikachu cursed and swore like a sailor as he and Dedenne ran for it, the male Rocket member and the all too familiar Meowth themed hot air balloon right on their asses.

"_You know, it would be a lot easier for us to get away if your speed was maxed out and I didn't have to slow down to make sure you get out of this mess with your freedom intact,_" Pikachu pointed out dispassionately, while running alongside Dedenne at what it considered to be the pace of a level 1 Slowpoke. "_Hey, give me a break, I'm only level forty right now, and I have 50 thousand speed at most,_" Dedenne retorted defensively, displaying the ability all Pokemon had to calculate their own power levels as well as the levels of Pokemon all around them instinctively, like a built in power scanner, one which only Pokemon who could speak human languages had any chance of conveying to the human populace.

"Oh come on, give up already, it's not like ya can outrun us with dat lug slowing ya down," Meowth shouted after them, ever the one to state the obvious as Pikachu merely rolled its eyes, but quickly swore as it found itself most inconveniently surrounded by both Jessie and James's full teams, every loser Pokemon they ever caught now standing between them and their freedom. Quickly noting they'd have no choice but to battle, Pikachu was just about to tell Dedenne to hide and let it handle this when Seviper launched a poison seeped tail towards Pikachu at well past the sound barrier, a sonic boom echoing and knocking Dedenne back with a deafening shock wave, the other Pokemon present powerful enough to be immune to the harmful effects of the g-force. Pikachu exhaled forcefully to remain calm as its only means of backup was knocked against a tree and went out cold the moment it collided with the sturdy trunk, Pikachu dodging left, right, and center as each Pokemon took their turns attacking it, giving it barely enough time to dodge, never mind counter attack.

"_Give it up Pikachu, thisss time we've got you outmanned and outnumbered,_" Seviper hissed in its snakelike form of Pokespeech, which Pikachu heartily ignored as it shot of a blue tower of lightning into the sky, trying to alert Ash and barely managing to succeed as all the members of Team Rocket caught onto its intentions just a few seconds too late.

"He's signalling da twerps with dat thunderbolt you guys," Meowth pointed out matter-of-factly. Scolding herself and James for letting this happen, Jessie took the initiative and ordered another Poison tail from Seviper, her and her partner shouting to each of their Pokemon to attack in unison and to proceed with Pikachu's capture as quickly as possible. Pikachu quickly took evasive action as all of their Pokemon ganged up on it, Seviper slithering after it with a ridiculously overpowered poison tail that turned the air to miasma with just its mere presence. Pikachu's instantaneous reflexes kicked in and it met the Pokemon's attack head on with an equally powerful iron tail, the collision generating about 80 megatons of pure force, cratering the earth impossibly deep and generating a shock wave so massive that he sent a mental cry to Ash and warned him to protect the surrounding areas through the power of aura, knowing that the damage would be catastrophic and would likely level the entire forest, Lumiose city, Santalune city, and half of Kalos if his trainer didn't immediately react.

Seviper and Pikachu were both catapulted into the air at hypersonic velocities, the earth shaking far worse than a 10 on the Richter scale beneath them. They both shot into orbit at mach 25 in opposite directions as Pikachu managed to recover from the aftershock and fell back towards the earth, using the momentum gained from its descent from the upper stratosphere to power up an iron tail and aiming straight at the ground near Team Rocket's Pokemon. As Team Rocket stared up at him in shock, Pikachu plummeted straight down from thousands of miles above sea level, his heart and stomach abandoning him somewhere up in the ionosphere. It reached the ground at well past the terminal velocity for most humans, and slammed its harder than titanium tail into none other than Swoobat which created another massive, 50 megaton shock wave that sent a gigantic mushroom cloud of earth, rocks, and even massive oak trees miles up into the air, cleaving through the clouds themselves.

As he landed by the unconscious Swoobat in the middle of a smoking crater the size of Manhattan, Pikachu prayed to Arceus that Ash had gotten his message, and was relieved when the familiar pink glow of Ash's Mana illuminated the ground all around them, the air gaining a rosy pink hue as though the entire world were being blanketed by an all-powerful sweet scent attack. Ash's telepathic voice reassured him that he, Bonnie, and Clement were fine though they knew something was very wrong now. His trainer informed him that he was discretely protecting the planet through the power of his unlimited Mana, muttering a planet sized enchantment that should, in theory, not only render everything on earth temporarily indestructible, but also restore the entire world and its entire Pokemon and human population to life even if it were to be broken apart like an eggshell, and though Pikachu was extremely impressed by the full scope of Ash's abilities, it hoped beyond hope that his enchantment's secondary feature would never become necessary.

Not knowing for sure whether or not Ash's intended Mana spell would truly work, Pikachu didn't want to test it unless it absolutely had to. The entire forest and all of route 4 had been leveled just by those last two attacks, and Pikachu had no doubt that Lumiose city as well as Santalune city were experiencing massive, earth shaking tremors, though fortunately Ash's powers had intercepted the shock waves before they could raze either Santalune or Lumiose city. At least that was what Ash was reassuring him of as he fought for his life, awaiting Charizard's triumphant emergence on the scene. Ash, Bonnie, and Clement must have seen everything, including the thunderbolt Pikachu sent into the sky to signal them, and no doubt if they were all okay they'd resume the search for him and Dedenne.

All of Team Rocket's Pokemon had been blown away by the initial collision between Pikachu and Seviper, as well as Team Rocket themselves, but Pikachu knew it wasn't over; it'd take even more force than _that_ to take out a squadron of level 100 Pokemon. Jessie and James were unusually resilient for humans as well, and Pikachu had caught a glimpse of Meowth shielding them with a full powered protect to keep them from dying even as they were blasted off yet again. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Dedenne, and as Pikachu searched frantically to and fro for any sign of his new friend, chilling dread coursed through his veins as he realized the little hamster Pokemon was nowhere to be found, having vanished at some point during the explosion.

His heart was racing faster than an EKG could register at this point, and for good reason, Dedenne was nowhere to be found and could have very easily died from those last two explosions, but Pikachu didn't have time to be distracted by feelings of concern and could only hope that Dedenne had regained consciousness and ran to safety or been exposed to Ash's supernatural protection. Before Pikachu could fully regain its focus on the situation at hand, Seviper was back along with Arbok, Inkay, Pumpkaboo, Cofagrigus, and the others, all of Team Rocket's Pokemon now angered at the loss of their partner Swoobat and fighting with renewed vigor, forcing Pikachu to dodge left, right, and center.

His speed blurred the charred, ruined landscape as he darted and zigzagged around at hundreds of times the speed of sound, dodging sludge bombs, Gunk shots, air slashes from Yanmega, a massive torrent of highly pressurized water from Jellicent as it flooded the battle field with a water spout attack, and a vast array of other potentially lethal attacks, leaving Pikachu barely enough room to dodge even at the speed it was moving at now, never mind launching a counterattack. Pikachu may have been a highly trained Pokemon, but he wasn't a legendary, and he wasn't a god that could perform unlimited miracles like Arceus or Ash's shiny Mew. There was only so much he could do with his power alone, and right now he needed backup, like right the fuck now.

'_Damn it Charizard, where the fuck are you?_' Pikachu demanded, sending a plea for help through the power of Ash's aura, using the constant telepathic connection Ash maintained between himself and all of his Pokemon to demand why in the fuck Charizard was taking so bloody long. When he got a response, Pikachu finally understood why Charizard was running late. '_Keep them busy for a little while longer Pi, I'm just getting Dedenne to safety, he was unconscious when I found you guys but I managed to get him out of there just before you and Seviper clashed tails. Just give me about one more minute, five tops, okay, I'll be there in a flash_,' Charizard reassured him, and Pikachu sighed in relief that Dedenne was okay, even as it rematerialized some miles away from Team Rocket's Pokemon, never staying in one place for more than a few seconds and attempting to wear them out until Charizard could reach him.

'_Good job you guys, Bonnie, Clement, and I are closing in on your position Pikachu; we'll be there in about three minutes. Also Charizard, if you beat us to Team Rocket make sure they don't leave this fight conscious, I want them all, humans and Pokemon alike, knocked out by a blue flamethrower. I'm not saying you have to kill them, but don't be afraid to knock em around a bit. I'm tired of them trying this every other day and quite frankly I'm not going to be lenient with them anymore. If they're going to insist on continuing trying to steal you guys, I'm going to treat them like any common criminal, and if they get any more dangerous than they are now, I'll have no choice but to resort to more... extreme measures,_' Ash informed them darkly, and Pikachu shuddered, realizing what Ash meant by 'extreme measures.' He didn't like Team Rocket anymore than Ash did, but it wasn't sure if such extremes were really necessary.

Charizard gave Ash an affirmative and promised to burn Team Rocket to very near a crisp, and Pikachu merely sent them a mental nod of approval, feeling like it stuck around in this spot of the forest long enough and darting off again, a beam of yellow light trailing behind it as it neared the light barrier, pulling out all the stops in one last attempt to outrun its assailants and hopefully launch a counterattack faster than thought. Its infinite electric type Pokemon energy as well as all its other infinite energies enabled it to keep accelerating despite the fact that it was very near the speed of light, moving in at a whopping 175 thousand miles per second and accelerating, the entire world completely suspended and frozen in time, the very planet itself no longer orbiting relative to Pikachu as its mass became absolute and the universe became two dimensional, finally hitting the speed of light and circling the entire 125 thousand mile wide globe almost one and a half times every second, the regions of Poke-Earth, the seven continents, and even the vast oceans all whizzing past it in the same exact instant. Pikachu readied a full powered thunder attack as it neared Kalos once again, only Pokemon that were going faster than it able to dodge the attack it was about to unleash, its entire body glowing like a supernova with blue electrical energy, irradiated in an infinite number of megawatts.

Upon reaching Kalos and by extension Team Rocket on Route 4 in a Planck time, Pikachu took momentary notice of the fact that all of their Pokemon save Meowth were literally standing still by comparison, either not as fast as Pikachu or not moving as fast right now and therefore unable to react in time when said Pokemon was already moving far faster than thought, sound, or any vehicle invented by man. Such was its speed that only other high level Pokemon could reach or surpass it, and even then only when they used their infinite energy to continue accelerating in spite of the fact that their mass was already absolute. Pikachu didn't even slow down as it fired off an all-powerful thunder attack, the air turning to pure static electricity around it in slow motion, slowly adopting a bluish tinge as the immeasurable wattage seeded a massive storm cloud that covered all of Kalos in a matter of seconds. As Pikachu began slowing down a truly massive thunderstorm darkened the entire region, and massive forks of lightning infinitely more powerful than any natural earth lightning began descending from the heavens at one third the speed of light, nearly as fast as Pikachu itself was moving, falling to the earth in slow motion, but nevertheless menacingly and with precise accuracy, towards Team Rocket's Pokemon, towards the remains of Route 4, and quite possibly across the entire planet if it kept up.

As Pikachu skidded to a stop and its infinite mass receded, it turned around just in time to see Team Rocket's Pokemon catch the all-powerful blast, the air all around absolutely rank with ozone and turning blue with immeasurable electron volts and static electricity, Team Rocket's remaining Pokemon screaming at the top of their lungs upon receiving the shock of a lifetime, the gigantic tower of electricity striking the ground between them and the worst of it passing through the ground, but still powerful enough to knock all of Team Rocket's Pokemon out and send them blasting off like never before. Jessie, James, and Meowth had already been knocked into orbit by the first shockwave generated by Seviper's clash with Pikachu earlier. Now though, the massive thunderstorm and all of its lightning bolts generated another series of massive, thunderous explosions, the claps of thunder far louder than anything producible by nature and resounding throughout the entire solar system with 10 octillion megatons of power, the same as a supernova, and if not for the pink energy blanketing the entire world thanks to Ash, Pikachu knew that this blast would have easily detonated the entire planet. Pikachu could sense Ash working overtime as he expanded his Mana to encompass the nearest planets in the solar system and even the sun itself, the yellow ball of gas in the sky turning hot pink as the clouds from Pikachu's storm completely blocked it off.

Meanwhile, a 5000 mile per second wind blew through Route 4, and Pokemon and people alike were being swept away from the scene like dust bunnies, wondering how in the hell they were still alive even as panic surged through them at the thought of being tossed about in midair at impossible speeds. Pikachu panted with obvious exhaustion, beaded with sweat, its electrical energy limitless enough to keep it going even at the speed of light but only for a short while, because there was still a physical limit to its stamina, and now a torrential downpour of water flooded the entire forest. All of Team Rocket now drifted in the upper atmosphere somewhere and were no longer Pikachu's problem, but all of this devastation was his fault, and if he didn't feel so delirious with fatigue he was sure he'd feel far worse about it than he did right now.

Pikachu was aching all over, struggling to maintain its grip on reality not to mention an unusually strong, underground root. With little left to worry about for the time being, and Ash's Mana defying physics by keeping everyone safe from these planet busting phenomena, his exhaustion and fatigue finally took over. Everything went black as he passed out in the middle of his own ultra thunderstorm and his grip on the gnarled tree root slackened, the unearthly winds never slowing down and the claps of thunder never receding as he was blown away to parts unknown. The last thing Pikachu was aware of before blacking out fully was being swept up in the unnatural hurricane and a pair of strong, reptilian hands as big as his body closing around his midsection in midair...

XXXXX

"CLEMENT, HANG ON!" Bonnie screamed at the top of her lungs as she held onto Ash's waist for dear life, the winds, the thunderstorms, and the massive torrent of never-ending water devastating the already twisted landscape that once passed for a beautiful route, both she and Clement were dangling in midair, the wind and unexpected turbulence threatening to whisk them away to their untimely deaths. Ash was acting as their one and only anchor, and his focus was split between trying to keep them rooted to the ground and using his Mana to protect not only earth now, but the entire solar system as Pikachu summoned one of the most powerful otherworldly typhoons the world had ever seen, the vibrations and the shock waves from each clap of thunder as well as the unlimited energy of each lightning bolt powerful enough to shake the planet apart.

"HANG ON TO WHAT?!" Clement shouted just as loudly as his arms wrapped around his sister's legs. Ash knew he needed to focus his Mana to encompass the entire planet so that it wouldn't be destroyed, and some way, somehow he was managing to hold everything together in one piece, despite the deafening claps of thunder and the bolts of lightning that produced shock waves and vibrations powerful shake apart the entire solar system. The air had turned to pure static and the all around them the air smoked and smouldered with sulphuric plumes. Bonnie had a look of absolute terror on her face as her grip on Ash's waist started slipping, afraid not only for her own life but her brother's, who depended on her to keep him rooted to Ash, and as for the Pallet town trainer, he pulled Bonnie and by extension Clement closer to him with one arm, all the while maintaining his hold over the entire world as well as the adjacent planets orbiting the now pink colored sun, his forehead beaded with sweat, his eyebrows creased together in immense concentration. Even if his spiritual powers were up to task, the mental strain of maintaining a solar system sized barrier to protect everything from this freak storm system was beginning to exact a physical toll on Ash's body.

Neither Clement nor Bonnie could question how he was managing to stay aground, given the current circumstances, but Ash's look of calmness and concentration was almost enough to reassure them, even as they maintained a death grip on him to keep from being blown away. Bonnie couldn't help pleading internally with Ash, not caring how he was doing what he was doing or if he was the one keeping them from blasting away at terminal velocities, all she cared about was that he was the only thing keeping her and her brother from dying right now. Her life and Clement's life were in his hands, and the fact that he seemed to put everything he had into keeping them grounded just endeared him to her all the more. Bonnie's minor crush on the older boy and her admiration of him suddenly grew painfully intense in these moments, moments where her young life flashed before her eyes, as though anticipating the worst and expecting to be snuffed out at any moment.

If they made it out of this alive, Bonnie swore then and there to always be there for Ash, like the little sister he seemed to see her as, even if her own feelings for him were what her father referred to as puppy love. She saw images of her mind of her mother's death, having witnessed it firsthand had been horrific to say the very least, but it had made Bonnie almost unnaturally aware of how dark the world could be and how fast she was capable of growing up if she witnessed stuff like that. Thanks to that experience, she had the same emotional maturity as someone twice her age; or at least she liked to think so, as did her father and even her brother, even if Clement never admitted it. She also knew he'd never admit to needing her, or that she needed him, Clement wasn't very good with emotions, he said it interfered with his will and his ability to think logically and rationally. Now though, Bonnie wondered if he was rationalizing this situation, but judging by the death grip he maintained on her legs, she rather doubted it.

All of these thoughts ran through her mind as she realized the storm wasn't letting up, whatever Pikachu had done, it had created a storm cloud big enough to blanket the entire planet. As panic rose up inside her like bile, Ash was still concentrating, while keeping one arm firmly fastened around both Clement and Bonnie now, the three of them huddled together and trying their best to wait out the storm, but Ash knew it would never let up, with the amount of energy that thing was kicking out, enough to power every city on earth forever more, he knew that such an unnatural, freak of nature storm would require a supernatural solution. Pikachu was out cold, so Ash knew he couldn't ask anymore from him, especially a task such as absorbing all the excessive amounts of electricity now stuck in the atmosphere, there was enough energy in those clouds to seriously risk Pikachu's life if he received it head on. Even though he could absorb all that energy via his lightning rod, Ash knew his buddy's body wouldn't like it when the charges were reversed, that kind of energy could be released, but taking it back in all at once, may cause Pikachu's body to short out... permanently.

A vague hint of his memory of the New Island incident and with Mewtwo suddenly resurfaced in his mind, causing an unexpected flashback of that night when he turned to stone while watching a Mew and Mewtwo battling to the death. The storm from that night had been extremely reminiscent of this one, though this one was far more powerful and would likely destroy the earth a lot quicker. Ash couldn't believe he had forgotten about that night until now, but as he stood here with Bonnie and Clement in his arms, the three of them closer now than they probably ever have been in the last week, he knew this storm was drudging up memories of distant times, where everything was on the line and yet he had refused to give into despair. Such times were a thing of the past, and he knew his loneliness was beginning to consume him, but he no longer knew for certain if it had to be that way, and with Bonnie and Clement here depending on him, he knew he couldn't give up on having human companions along with him on his journey, at least not yet.

"Ash, we're gonna be okay, right?" he heard Bonnie whimper, somehow even above the earth shaking vibrations and the never-ending booming of thunder and lightning, Ash could hear the girl silently asking him to reassure her, looking to him of all people for comfort, support, and reassurance. In these moments, he felt warmth festering in his heart, the likes of which he hadn't felt for so long, somebody needed him, somebody depended on him for protection. It was just like when he and Serena were just two kooky kids with problems that seemed so large at the time but were so small in hindsight, when Serena would come to him for comfort and support and he'd relish the chance to do so like his life depended on it. Did he have a complex for supporting others and protecting them, maybe he did, in fact he had grown to love moonlighting as the Aura Phoenix as much as he enjoyed Pokemon battles, and lately the moonlighting had been the only time Ash felt like he could be himself and enjoy it. Hearing Bonnie call his name again reminded him of the fact that she needed him to be strong, for her sake and for Clement's. Despite there not being a significant gap between his and Clement's ages, Ash knew he was the seasoned veteran in this scenario, and that he was going to need to be the ring leader of their little group of three, soon to be four if what his dreams had showed him recently were anything to go by.

"Don't worry Bon-Bon; we'll be okay, alright? I promise, I won't let anything happen to you or Clement," Ash promised her, and Bonnie hugged him tighter, the wind not lessoning in the slightest and to be honest Ash was starting to worry. His control over his Mana was slowly slipping the longer he maintained it, as was custom in recent weeks, if the storm didn't let up soon there would be nothing he could do to keep it from destroying earth and all the living things in it. He could sense Charizard attempting to make his way back to him and the group, an unconscious Pikachu and Dedenne in his grip, but riding winds that were rolling in at over 5000 miles per second wasn't easy, even for a level infinity flying type, and though Charizard had infinite strength, there was a limit to his flight speed unless he got a running start.

Somehow hearing Ash call her Bon-Bon almost made Bonnie giggle in spite of the circumstances; and with her arms wrapped around Ash and his around her in return, she felt safe and familiar warmth from his embrace that she couldn't quite place. The wind was devastating, like nothing she'd ever seen, and her hair was blowing so hard that her hairclip was lost to the four winds, leaving her golden blonde hair cascading down past her shoulders, exactly the way she didn't like it yet her father always said looked good on her.

Thinking of Meyer made Bonnie wonder if he was alright; he was probably taking shelter in the old storm shed Clement had built into the earth once upon a time. She wondered though, how much protection that ratty old thing could provide against winds like this, winds moving so fast she was amazed they weren't blowing the whole planet out of orbit. Little did she know that Ash was keeping the planet on its scheduled orbit as well; all through the sheer force of his own Mana, a spiritual power like no other. Unlike his aura and Chi, which were limitless in magnitude; his Mana had a near infinite plethora of applications and was as infinitely versatile as it was powerful. Ash himself had spent years trying to understand it yet still knew in the bottom of his soul that he'd only scratched the surface of what his Mana was truly capable of.

That being said, there wasn't much time left until Ash's control slipped, and the earth would be tossed about like a barrel of Mankey's. If he didn't think of an alternate solution fast, there wouldn't be a world to save anymore, at least until his enchantment restored it to its factory settings which admittedly was something he wasn't sure he could even do, but he had to try. If Serena were here, she'd remind him of their motto to never give up until the end, and somehow just the thought of her was enough to spur him into action.

His gaze shifted over to Bonnie and Clement huddling next to him, and if his plan was going to work he needed to let himself as well as the two of them be swept up in a gust of wind, not too hard to do, given this storm, but what would be harder to explain was how the hell he was keeping them grounded, not that he cared about that right now. If it meant keeping his new friends safe, Ash would gladly trade away his secret a thousand times over, if it meant he could keep the two people standing by his side right now safe from harm. He knew it had only been about a week since he met them, but Bonnie and Clement already felt like kin.

He had forged a really strong connection with Bonnie in particular, having never had a little sister before and quite enjoying the experience, but it also didn't hurt that Bonnie reminded him of another blonde haired little girl, who looked up to him and had been there for him through thick and thin, who stuck to him like glue in spite of whatever issues he had going on at the time. Bonnie was the same, he had warned her and Clement time and again that traveling with him could get really dangerous, a fact they were undoubtedly becoming intimately familiar with now, yet she had insisted on coming with him, despite Clement's obvious reservations, despite all of the possible scenarios Ash warned her about. She was without a doubt, the most loyal little sister he could have ever asked for.

"Guys, I can't hold on much longer," Ash grunted, realizing he needed to put his plan into motion and to do that, Clement and Bonnie couldn't see him doing his thing. His plan was, put mildly; foolish, dangerous, and borderline stupid, but he had to try. He might have been the only human on this earth who could pull it off, and maybe he'd die trying to save the world, but right now, with Pikachu out of commission and Charizard being a flying type, not to mention his fully trained Mega Sceptile being at Oak's laboratory right now, he was out of alternative options. He knew what he had to do, and it involved absorbing the infinite amounts of electrical energy from the atmosphere... himself.

Bonnie felt absolute terror surge through her upon hearing those words and feeling Ash's grip on them slacken a bit, but the look on his face as she looked up at him pleadingly seemed almost placating, like he was asking her to trust him and reassuring her he knew what he was doing. She didn't know why he met her gaze with that peculiarly calm and serene expression, or if he was even aware of giving her that look, but whatever he had planned to deal with this storm, she decided to trust him just for now. Even as her mind and every fibre of her being screamed at her to hang onto him like her life depended on it, she closed her eyes and took a gigantic leap of faith; allowing the wind to whisk her and Clement away. She knew she made the right choice as she caught Ash's expression while getting carried farther and farther away from him every microsecond.

From what she could see in the impossible darkness caused by this hellish storm, he was wearing a look of momentary shock, but immediately recovered and to her great surprise, smiled kindly. She prayed to Arceus that she made the right choice, the overwhelming motion of being carted away in hypersonic winds causing her to develop motion sickness as she and Clement both screamed. Hoping beyond hope that she wasn't completely insane and that Ash would find a way to somehow put an end to this, Bonnie allowed herself and her brother to be carried away, still not completely sure how she was alive. With these remarkably rational thoughts tumbling around inside her head, Bonnie closed her eyes once more and awaited the impending painful landing she and Clement would eventually find, but it never came. Instead the sense of motion stopped, the winds completely died out, the deafening claps of almighty thunder became muffled, and she and Clement were floating in midair as though by some psychic or other form of energy...

XXXXX

Outer space truly was a quiet and tranquil place, a fact that wasn't lost on a legendary Pokemon of a truly godlike caliber. Arceus had long since come to accept the planet earth as her new home, having recovered her jewel of life and gained every additional plate in existence that members of her species needed to create their Omni Plate and gain access to their almighty Ascension Form. People were far more evolved now than they were in Damos's time, and though some things had changed immensely others had not changed at all. She had once thought that the human populace was chalk full of deceitful, wicked hearted individuals with ulterior, selfish motives to every endeavor they undertook, and that they were all the same. But since meeting and befriending Ash, Arceus had learned that not all humans are like that, and as her father the Original One reminded her, she couldn't judge an entire race based on the actions of a select few, no matter what those few may have done to her personally.

Arceus had learned a lot from her time on earth, and appreciated her father's words of wisdom more than she ever did in her youth, when she had hatched from an egg the Original Arceus that shaped the universe had laid. He had been intending to reproduce at the same time he created everything in the universe; he had given her life, and despite what the human scientists may have believed, there was in fact more than one living Arceus out there across totality, a near infinite number if one took the Multi-Verse into consideration though she knew most people didn't take that into consideration. She often wondered how the people of Michina town didn't put two and two together, how could a Pokemon who was completely omnipotent by his fundamental nature go from being able to create entire worlds in the blink of an eye to being unable to stop meteors? Oh well, maybe they believed that creating the universe had tired her father out, it was probably an easier explanation than saying there was more than one Arceus, more than one Pokemon capable of becoming almighty in every sense and aspect, a concept that would boggle any mortal minds no doubt. Hell, a lot of people still wondered if attaining a level of infinity was even actually possible, and the thought of it being possible to train any Pokemon to such immensity was no doubt a controversial subject.

Nevertheless, upon learning to fully understand the humans she had become used to living amongst them in her human guise, and upon gaining compassion for them through her trials with the Jewel of Life incident and during her time with Ash, Arceus junior had been asked to see her father by the infamous shiny blue Mew that was the first of her kind, that was her father's right hand lieutenant, who had now been captured by Ash himself. Upon meeting her father, Arceus had been astounded when he told her that she learned all she needed, completed the trials he set for her, and now the time had come to put those trials behind her. He had said that any father can only hope he is one day humbled by the feats of his sons and daughters, and then asked Mew to do the honors of taking on their kind's Ascension Form and giving Arceus Junior all of the thousands of life plates she still needed, including the life plate for Shadow Pokemon, the Pixie plate, and the Mystery type that moves like Curse often used, as well as thousands of other types the humans had yet to discover the existence of. All of them combined together with her current 16 plates to form the legendary Omni plate, a gigantic life plate incandescent with a boundless radiance of power, light, and every color in the visible spectrum.

This Omni Plate was what allowed her to access her Ascension Form, a form that awakened her true power and caused her entire color scheming to change; her golden cross-like wheel became infused with every color in existence. Thousands of golden tendrils sprung from her body and worked exactly like arms, allowing her to use every Pokemon move in existence including punching moves. It gave her an ability known as Omni Type, an ability that rendered her absolutely immune to nearly every Pokemon move in totality and enabled her judgement attack to completely ignore the type matchup system and hit any and all Pokemon in totality super effectively.

Her father the Original Arceus told her that once she found a trainer worthy of her, and she became fully trained to level infinity, in her Ascension Form she'd be absolutely unbeatable by her fundamental nature and told her that it wouldn't be fair to other trainer's Pokemon for her to use that power at its full strength. The best part about her Omni Plate was that Arceus could still access her normal type form and all her other single type forms, but with the added benefit of having an invincible form in her back pocket.

She had been reluctant to admit that any trainer out there was worthy of her powers, and the only one that came to mind as even a slightly likely possibility was Ash Ketchum AKA the Chosen Champion of her father himself, but Primal Arceus had hinted to her that there was another trainer out there for her who was just as suited to train her as the Chosen One himself, and that befriending a human would open up her mind and heart in ways she didn't even know were possible. He told her this trainer was a girl who would one day become the Chosen One's lover and eventually, a trainer of absolute power with a destiny all on her own. The only other hints Arceus had of this human were vague precognitive visions of a blonde haired girl performing on stage with a level infinity Delphox, all in front of a crowd of thousands.

Omni-Temporal perception was not her area of expertise, at least not to the extent that Dialga itself possessed, but Arceus knew this girl, whoever she was, was somehow predestined to be her trainer, maybe even by forces as powerful as her father himself, but even higher up on the endless hierarchy of the Ultra-Verse's near infinite number of nigh omnipotent gods. In all honesty, she actually knew very little about the Ultra-Verse or about anything relating to pre-destiny. Then again, she knew there was still so much she could learn from the humans, and was planning on heading back to earth in the next few moments or so, no longer needing to rest for countless eons in her native dimension now due to being fully tapped into her full, potentially limitless power, she loved the fact that she could be fully conscious now for years on end without suffering from fatigue or drowsiness. Then again, her consciousness was so infinite now that the vast expanse of the Omega Omnisphere itself was mapped out inside her equine head, and such an overwhelming inundation of knowledge and wisdom could be massively straining, but she managed somehow.

She knew now that she had seriously misjudged the humans, thanks to Dialga sending Ash back in the past and changing her fortune she also knew that Markus was really the one to blame and that Damos had not betrayed her of his own free will. She still felt bad for being so quick to think he would ever go back on his word, anybody who knew Damos knew he was a good man, and Arceus had known that to upon meeting him. She had been hurt by the idea that he could so easily take advantage of her willingness to trust him with her life, and hoped beyond hope that whoever this female trainer she was meant to be with, she would be able to trust her with everything, assuming she agreed to join the girl's team. She had been hoping that Ash would become her trainer, wanting to understand firsthand how humans and Pokemon were able to coexist symbiotically, but apparently that honor was to be her father's, for he was planning on joining Ash's already impressive roster of equally impressive Pokemon. Arceus remembered seeing a level 100 Pikachu, a level infinity Charizard and Sceptile that could change their forms through a phenomena she now knew was called mega evolution, a feat many Pokemon legendary and not were capable of now. The first Pokemon ever to have been capable of mega evolution had been Giratina and Rayquaza, both of whom had Mikado Organs capable of storing infinite amounts of mega evolution energy.

Being out here in the peace and quiet of outer space gave Arceus a lot of private time to think, even despite the back of her head reminding her time and again that she was now connected to all things in totality, though she managed to block that out for the most part and just drift around the planet that the humans called Venus. She could see earth even from here, thanks to her virtually all-seeing eyes which would become fully all-seeing once she was fully trained, or so her father had told her. Aside from any fully trained individuals of Arceus, Mew, or Omninoir across their native Multi-Verse, only a select few other Pokemon were capable of obtaining true omnipotence when fully trained.

This was one fact Arceus reminded herself of a few times every now and again. She wondered what it would be like to experience battles against Pokemon on the same level as herself, or even perform on stage with that girl in her visions; the idea of being on stage for thousands of humans to see such an alien concept to her it was almost tantalizingly enticing. She could only imagine those people's reactions upon seeing her being summoned on stage by those strange circular devices modern day humans used to provide refuge to their magical creatures, or Pokemon as they called them now. For some reason, she found herself looking forward to the day when humans wouldn't see her as some deity capable of performing limitless miracles and just saw her as they would see any other Pokemon, and she had the feeling that this trainer she kept having visions of would help her be accepted as just a normal Pokemon, one that was naturally obscenely powerful and depending on her form, absolutely unbeatable.

She was startled out of her reverie by a truly massive shock wave of pure power slamming into her and yet somehow causing no damage, a pinkish glow engulfing her body and filling her with spiritual power, the massive shock wave following the ever-expanding pink supernova going all the way out past mars and reaching the sun at well beyond the speed of light. Another shock wave resounded throughout the solar system, and Arceus saw that earth had been blanketed by a storm so gigantic it was enveloping the entire planet and turning it from light blue to jet black, the massive storm cloud over 100 thousand miles in diameter. Her heart started pounding at a million miles an hour inside her chest, horror coursing through her at the dawning realization that earth was in an absolutely perilous situation, and if not for that strange pink light shielding the entire solar system itself from the sheer force of that unnaturally powerful storm, she knew that earth would be blown to bits.

"_The time has come for me to help out, I just hope I'm not already too late,_" she said telepathically as she set her sights on the now blackened planet earth and began flying towards it at beyond the speed of light, knowing that she was pressed for time and didn't have any to waste. While she flew towards the devastating scene before her, a bunch of futuristic visions started flashing through her Omni-Timeline perceiving mind out of nowhere, showing her the face of her trainer, and though Arceus had very little knowledge of the matter, she knew that the face in her vision was the face of someone who was beautiful by human standards. She quickly put the out of nowhere vision to the back of her mind, even as she heard the girl's name being praised by the crowds all around her while she competed for some lofty title that appeared almost royal in stature. Now armed with the information she needed to meet and get to know her supposedly pre-determined trainer, Arceus flew towards the earth with all due haste, nearing the eye of the storm which was situated above a region known as Kalos, the name '_Serena Yvonne'_ resounding through her head like a broken record...

XXXXX

Before the storm hit, Serena had been having a pretty good day. It started off with a strange combination of pure euphoria at the thought of Ash being so close and concern for her oldest friend and the love of her life upon concluding her conversation with professor Sycamore. But no matter how strange the day could have been, nothing would have been able to prepare her for this horrifying turn of events that took the entire world by storm... literally.

This freak storm system was far beyond anything producible by nature alone, that much was for certain, and if it hadn't been for her Delphox's incredibly good instincts kicking in as she appeared from her Pokeball and shielded both Serena and herself with her strongest protect, then they would have been swept away in the unnatural winds, which moved way too fast to be any normal earth wind. As it was, Serena and Delphox stood perfectly safe in an impenetrable force field of pure green energy, the words of her old friend Calem echoing in her mind.

'_The beautiful thing about force fields is that they are impervious to speed, and depending on how much energy is contained within them, they are capable of becoming completely impermeable and impenetrable. Keep that in mind next time somebody tries to attack you with a weapon or you find yourself in a truly invigorating battle. My recommendation is that you train your Pokemon to maintain their defensive moves and moves like Protect, Detect, and other potentially impenetrable shield form moves for as long as possible, it could literally save your life someday Serena_,' Calem had advised her, and Serena sent him a silent thank you for all the life saving advice he had given her over the years.

There was only one problem she and Delphox had now from maintaining an impenetrable barrier for this long, and that was the fact that they had a limited air supply, because if nothing could penetrate, then fresh oxygen couldn't flow through the shield. If they didn't drop the shield or the storm didn't die out, then they ran the risk of suffocating, and Serena prayed that whatever had caused the storm would either put a stop to it, or it would simply die down on its own.

Still though, for the moment they were both safe; but Serena found herself wishing she had a level infinity Pokemon on her team that had lightning rod as its ability. She quickly went over her current roster; from Milotic to Pangaroo, Absol, Altaria, Delphox, and Sylveon, all of whom somehow had their hidden abilities and were Hexa Perfect despite the fact that Serena never used a Dex Nav to track down the best of their species or won any battles with high level opponents. This was in fact the only reason they weren't already level infinity themselves, but despite her Pokemon having an infinite IV spread, none of them currently had the power required to stop a storm of this ungodly, otherworldly magnitude.

The winds were devastating the already charred land, stirring up the earth and the broken trees and fallen leaves in a maelstrom of earthen devastation. The battle that had taken place here only moments before and that massive bolt of blue lightning Serena saw must have caused all this. The rain was treacherous and turned the soil and leaf litter into a gigantic mudslide as the wind tossed it about. A torrential downpour caused an immediate flash flood, the likes of which she hadn't seen since the awakening of Kyogre and Groudon in the Hoenn region a couple of years back, when Team Magma and Team Aqua had been after the super ancient Pokemon and the powers they possessed to raise the lands, expand continents, and flood the entire planet respectively. Upon hearing that Ash had been present and helped put a stop to it made Serena's heart swell with pride for her childhood bestie, and she sent a quick prayer up to Arceus that wherever Ash was in Kalos right now that he would emerge from this storm in one peace.

Her reverie was interrupted by another blinding, all-consuming flash of lightning so bright that she had to shield her eyes, the first bolt in a while now that struck a little too close to her and Delphox for their own comfort. "Delphox, Del," it cried out, and Serena could see that maintaining the shield for this long was beginning to take a toll on her starter. She felt her heart fill with warmth upon seeing the determined look on Delphox's face, absolutely refusing to give into her growing exhaustion for the sake of her trainer. Serena needed to think fast, because that lightning bolt was really close and the boom of thunder that followed was so loud that if not for Delphox sound proofing her barrier as well, both she and Serena would have been permanently deafened and their brains would have turned to mush from the sheer blunt force of the sounds now blaring across the world.

She could hardly see two feet in front of the shield, and could only speculate at how many people must have been carried away in the storm by now, yet she wasn't as worried as she felt she ought to be. She couldn't explain it, but she had this crazy feeling that everything was going to be okay in the end, that something would come along and put an end to this potentially world breaking storm. She could still feel that strange, mystical force humming in the air, and knew that Delphox could sense it to. Whatever it was, it had turned the sun a bright, iridescent pink, although she couldn't see it right now due to the storm, the air all around them had adopted the same pinkish hue as the sun, the sky. Hell even the clouds which were blacker than the smoothest obsidian, had the lightest possible tinge of pink, so subtle and so inconspicuous that it was almost invisible, yet Serena could just barely make it out.

Whatever this mystic force was, it was somehow holding the world and even the rest of the solar system in one piece. She didn't know what miraculous powers were at work here, but she wasn't sure if she was more impressed or terrified by it. Another massive boom echoed throughout the entire uprooted Route 4, forcing Delphox to reinforce her shield as a solid wall of pure force slammed against it like a battering ram. Serena's teeth gritted in concentration as she willed the shield to hold and implored Delphox to dispel the shock wave with every fibre of her being. Delphox managed to keep the shock wave from crushing them with a blunt force equivalent to a nuclear explosion, but began to feel the effects of fatigue, forcing Serena to seriously consider her remaining options which were looking pretty slim right about now.

Another blinding flash of absolute light and power nearly burned her eyeballs out of her socket as she and Delphox stood right where an incoming thunderbolt of infinite megawatts fell down upon them faster than the blink of an eye. Serena would have screamed had she had time to react, but everything happened quite literally in a flash, and by time she realized she and Delphox were still alive, her scream had already died in her throat as pure shock and incredulity quickly replaced her dread.

A strange Pokemon floated directly in the path of the lightning bolt, intercepting it before it could strike either Serena or her starter and somehow absorbing the blast into its body. It was an equine being, mostly white in coloration but with a strange, cross-like wheel that was glowing bright luminous gold. As it turned back to check on both her and Delphox and make sure they were okay, its green eyes widened momentarily as though it recognized her, but Serena had never seen this Pokemon before in her life. She could feel the godlike, extra-dimensional energy it literally radiated just by walking, and breathing, just by its mere presence, and though she knew she should have been intimidated, she was more entranced than anything else.

The Pokemon floated down until its golden hoofs touched the charred, earthy ground, looking around at the ugly state of the once beautiful forest with what appeared to be pity. Serena quickly took out her Pokedex to scan it, and what happened next was a Pokedex entry she would never forget for as long as she lived. '_Arceus, the Alpha Pokemon, it was said to have been born in a place where there was nothing and shaped all there is in the world. Said to be the most powerful Pokemon of all, legends proclaim that Arceus is omnipotent and that any trainer who is blessed enough to catch it will know the true meaning of infinite might._'

The Pokemon gazed at her and at her Pokedex with interest as Serena quickly pocketed it, staring at the creature before it in stunned, awed silence, unable to even form words that could possibly express what she was feeling right now. Delphox was equally stunned, and merely held her fire wand in hand with a dumbstruck expression on her face. Arceus looked down on them with what almost appeared to be a small, coy smile, a good five feet taller than Serena herself was and at least three or four times as long, it almost seemed to enjoy their gobsmacked expressions and their flabbergasted demeanors.

'_If you are quite through with staring at me with your mouths hanging open, I believe that you have me at quite a disadvantage right now thanks to that fancy toy of yours. Tell me your name dear one, if it is not too much of a bother for you_,' Arceus stated. Serena struggled to gather herself, her Pokemon suffering from a similarly stupefied condition that was virtually all-consuming. She wasn't too terribly surprised by the idea that Pokemon could talk, but right now the fact that she was staring at the alleged God of all Pokemon, the being responsible for creating everything in the universe, was more than she could handle right now.

Arceus merely smiled down on her, the storms not bothering it or the two of them at all. Serena regained her sense of self only to realize that Arceus had encased the three of them in a bubble of translucent pure energy, the wind, the rain, and the bolts of almighty lightning merely glancing off of it the moment they made contact. The shield was bigger than Delphox's protect had been, and the air they were currently breathing seemed much fresher, much to both trainer and Pokemon's relief. Quickly remembering that Arceus had asked her for her name, Serena took yet another moment to clear her throat, check her voice box to make sure it was still functioning properly, and other necessities to ensure this introduction went without a hitch, not wanting her legendary encounter to be on rather awkward terms and wanting to remember this moment for all of her life.

"I'm Serena, and this is my partner Delphox. We strive to become the greatest Pokemon showcase performers the world has ever seen," Serena squeaked out at last, her voice several octaves higher than she would have liked, as though the shock had rendered her temporarily incapable of speech and by time her vocal cords did remember, there was still an aftershock once she did speak up. Man talk about embarrassing, of course her voice box just had to quit and then return to the job improperly, but there was nothing she could do about it now and she only hoped her introduction was well received.

Again Arceus's eyes seemed to widen upon hearing her name, almost as if she knew her somehow, and this reaction caused Delphox and Serena to exchange a nervous glance, the both of them thinking the same thing. '_This can't be a coincidence that Arceus shows up just as all this crazy stuff is happening_,' Serena mused inwardly, her reverie interrupted as Arceus spoke once more, grabbing her and Delphox's undivided attention without even the slightest effort, her voice riddled with power that literally set the air around them throbbing and made Serena's skin crawl.

'_You are most definitely right about that; our meeting was fated Serena Yvonne. I've been having visions about you for some time now, visions about the trainer you will become, and I've gotta say I'm thoroughly impressed. You might just be the only person on this earth who is a match for the Chosen Champion of Arceus himself. Oh and before you ask, I am an Arceus, but I am not THE Arceus, the original member of my species is my father, and it was he who shaped the universe, it is he is omnipotent in every sense and aspect. Me though, I've only recently obtained the means to unlocking my true potential and becoming as strong as my Father, but he tells me I require a trainer in order to realize my true potential, not that I believe him just yet. Nevertheless, I believe you and I were fated to meet, I didn't imagine however, that we would meet this soon_,' Arceus explained to her, and Serena grew more dumbfounded with every word spoken.

She couldn't even imagine or conceive any world where she would be granted an audience with any Arceus, even if it wasn't the Original One that shaped reality; it was still a Pokemon whose powers defied all explanation. She felt extremely humbled, like she wasn't a worthy enough trainer to even be talking to it, let alone indulging in her very farfetched and absolutely insane fantasies of adding Arceus to her team. She realized full well that many people on this earth would actually commit murder for the chance to be in her position, to have a clear shot at capturing a Pokemon that has been worshipped as the Supreme Deity since the dawn of both humankind and Pokemon alike.

As much as she wanted to add this majestic, legendary creature to her team, Serena knew it could never happen, it just could not ever happen. It had saved her life, and she had it added to her seen Pokemon list thanks to her Pokedex, so her memories of this day, which she was sure would last forever, would have to be enough. Because there was no way in hell that this Pokemon would ever entertain the idea of being put in a Pokeball and taking the performing Fandom by storm in ways no other trainer could even dream of.

There was a reason trainers were often discouraged from trying to capture legendary Pokemon, because not only were they essential to protecting the balance of nature and the entire world, but they were wilder, freer, and far above and beyond normal, everyday Pokemon. With the likes of Dialga, Palkia, or especially the Pokemon in front of her now, one had to wonder if they could ever truly be captured by something like a Pokeball. The scale of their abilities and their power too warp reality was just too great, and there was no way in hell that anyone should be able to capture such awe inspiring, mythical and majestic creatures. This Arceus wasn't just some normal Pokemon she could add to her team, she was a god, and she was meant to be free from all of this harassment and hassle the humans put her through. If Serena somehow managed to successfully capture this curb stomping deity, she'd have to find some way to help it circumvent all the attention, harassment, and attempts to steal her from Serena they would undoubtedly have to deal with, and as much as she wanted a legendary Pokemon on her performance roster, Serena wasn't willing to put Arceus through that. He was far too grand a deity and a legendary being to be confined to a Pokeball and made to perform on stage with some random trainer she barely even knew; Serena had always believed this to be true. There were some Pokemon that were just too important, too powerful, too attention grabbing, and too deeply connected to the cosmic balance of the universe to be captured and made to indulge every whim of a human.

Arceus's smile widened, having read Serena's thoughts and realizing that she was truly a pure hearted trainer, with immense amounts of respect for cosmic tier legendary Pokemon. She tried her very hardest to convince herself why she would never have anything to offer Arceus by getting her to join her team, despite how desperately she wanted to add a legendary to her roster she was willing to prioritize Arceus's happiness over her own. That was the mark of a truly selfless trainer and a true champion in the making no doubt, even if the girl was so far away from being considered a perfect being, she had a kind, selfless heart and had definitely convinced Arceus that she had found a trainer who could... in time become a trainer worthy of any Pokemon she set her sights on capturing, even Arceus herself.

It was at this moment that Arceus made a decision, one that may one day change both hers and Serena's life forever more. Serena meanwhile, was fighting against her very being, against every molecule in her body screaming at her to challenge Arceus to a battle for the chance to capture it, one she highly doubted she could even win. There was no doubt in her mind that, while not level infinity just yet, Arceus was at a much higher level 100 than any of her Pokemon, and wouldn't have any trouble sweeping her team as it was now.

'_You seem a little at war with yourself_,' Arceus telepathically commented, and Serena nodded in agreement. "Well, it's not every day when a legendary Pokemon, let alone one of a godlike caliber, gets this up close and personal to me and my team. I'm literally fighting every fibre of my being not to ask you for the opportunity to battle and try and..." Serena paused, trying to find the right way to word what she would have intended for Arceus should she add it to her team. '_Capture me_,' he added, finishing her thought in the crudest way possible, forcing Serena to stifle a cringe.

Delphox took a moment to address Arceus's comment in her own form of Pokespeech, her trainer evidently not understanding her but getting the gist of it while Arceus nodded in understanding. '_Your Pokemon all think very highly of you_,' she commented serenely, and Serena wondered exactly what Delphox had said on her behalf, blushing at the possible humiliating stories her starter could have conveyed without her knowing.

A loud crack of thunder and a blinding flash of lightning reminded Serena that there was still an all-powerful thunderstorm going on outside of their little safety dome, which didn't even seem to expend Arceus's seemingly infinite energy as it merely stood there conversing with her as though planet breaking storms were an everyday thing. It was also at this moment that Serena remembered Ash, and the fact that he was out there somewhere, in this storm. She couldn't help smiling at the thought, knowing Ash he was probably already taking steps to put a stop to the storm all by himself, most likely with his Mega evolved Sceptile that was level infinity and had lightning rod as its ability. This was doubtlessly a handy tool to have at one's disposal when dispelling a thunderstorm straight from the pits from hell, and Ash's Sceptile was probably one of if not his most powerful Pokemon, save perhaps his infamous Charizard.

'_Should I even bother asking what thought could be so important that it would distract you from the fact that there is a legendary Pokemon most people don't even believe truly exists standing in front of you?_' Arceus chuckled with a false attempt at self aggrandizement, pulling Serena out of her thoughts and admiration of her best friend. Her jaw dropped for what seemed to be the umpteenth time as the most powerful and blinding flash of all-consuming blue light yet illuminated the entirety of Route four, forcing Serena, Delphox, and even Arceus to shield their eyes as the flash continued for far longer than it should have, but then again nothing about this situation was normal in any sense of the word.

Even with her eyes shut tight and both her hands covering them, Serena still saw the flash as well as she would have had her eyes been open, and the pain was almost unbearable. There was no end in sight, the lightning bolt flashed on and on without stopping, as though all the remaining energy from the storm was being forced into this one drawn out burst of absolute light and infinite megawatts. Finally after what felt like hours the flash started dying down and eventually reached a point where Serena could see past her own agony, the air absolutely rank with ozone now and the entire world, which was once over-saturated with static electricity, had been drained of nearly all its excess electron volts and static charge.

Finally the flash died out altogether, and Serena opened her eyes fully, the sight that greeted her taking a moment to register in her hazy minded state. The massive, planet sized storm cloud was completely gone, leaving a clean blue sky in its place and the scent of fresh sunlight after a harsh rainstorm, a scent that was most welcome right now as Serena took a moment to breathe it all in. _How in the hell had this happened_?! She couldn't believe that just a few short moments ago there had been torrential rain, forks of lightning that contained energy far beyond anything natural, and almighty claps of thunder which in turn created vibrations capable of shaking the planet apart and even the solar system beyond that, and now it was all clear, as though there had never been a storm at all. If not for the fact that all of Route 4 was completely leveled and uprooted or that there were dead trees, humungous stumps, and unearthed forest floor soil as far as the eye could see, then Serena might have almost been able to believe that there never was a storm.

Even Arceus was surprised, clearly the powers of the Chosen One were greater than she imagined; whatever he had done to absorb all that energy from the atmosphere, it had gotten the job done. She had been able to feel his power even from out near the planet Venus, and here in Kalos she could sense that all the power that had seeded the storm had been absorbed by his Mana powers, their energies being added to his own, his body somehow emerging from the omnipotent electric shock unscathed. Even more surprising, was that he had rejected the offers of both his Mew and his Mega evolved Mewtwo to intercept the storm for him, not wanting to risk their lives despite the universally famous shiny Mew protesting that nothing could really do that to her.

He was truly worth admiring, his bravery and heroics were as sharp as ever it seemed, and for reasons unknown to her Ash and Serena seemed to share some sort of past history. She could have easily found out what kind of history those two had, and she would be lying if she said she wasn't at last somewhat curious about the girl who was supposedly meant to be her trainer and her relationship with the Chosen One, but in the end Arceus had chosen not to invade her privacy, opting to only read what was on the surface of her mind, what she was thinking at an exact moment in time.

Deciding it was time for her moment of glory, Arceus remembered the state of Route 4 and was cosmically aware of extensive damages to other parts of the world from the storm even with Ash's Mana induced protections in place. She began to glow, her enormous godlike powers surging through her as she activated the effects of her Omni Plate for the first time in her life with human witnesses present.

Serena backed away slightly upon seeing the Alpha Pokemon's body becoming illuminated by a blinding light, which started out gold but then became irradiated with unlimited colors. It was at this moment that Delphox cried out and pointed something out to Serena, and after a few seconds Serena saw why her starter was so intrigued. Her other Pokeballs were shaking inside her bag, evidently just as aware of the embodiment of pure, unadulterated power standing before them as Serena and Delphox were, but Serena barely paid this any mind because she was too distracted by the gigantic plate-like object that had been ejected from Arceus' body and now floated above her cross-shaped wheel. Whatever this plate was, Serena could sense that it was the most powerful and most important item in the entire Pokemon universe. She was somehow painfully aware of the fact that it was an omnipotent relic, incandescent with a boundless brilliance of light and coloration. Just looking at it made every nerve in Serena's body tingle, and caused her skin to break out in Goosebumps, everything that was her felt awed by the mere sight of it, like she would never be worthy of seeing it again, not even in a thousand years.

Finally, as if the gigantic life plate wasn't enough, it shot back into Arceus's body and change its form faster than Serena could blink. One moment she was a normal type and the next her entire color scheming and form had changed. She was still roughly the same size overall, maybe half a foot taller at most, but now she had sprouted hundreds of golden tendrils of light, both from her wheel and from the upper side of her body, each one with their own fists of pure energy. On top of that, both her golden hooves and her wheel had completely changed in color, now painted in every hue and shade of every color in the visible spectrum, a testament of its ability to be all-encompassing no doubt and to possess near complete or complete absolute power.

Serena and Delphox were now beholding an Arceus, a Pokemon like no other; a sublime figure who was the very embodiment of omnipotence, strength, grandeur, perfection, immensity, and transcendence. Whatever form it had taken, Serena knew it was now the very being who created entire worlds in the blink of an eye, and that those tendrils of golden lights were Arceus's thousand arms, the very arms that according to old myths shaped the universe itself and everything in it from out of nothingness. To stand here now and see this form of this particular legendary Pokemon, was more than Serena and her Pokemon could possibly express in words, so they stood there in silent awe and admiration, unable to say anything in the face of such raw power, beauty, and divine radiance.

Without saying so much as a word, Arceus stamped its hoof, and the very planet itself seemed to respond to this simple action. Immediately a brilliant green light illuminated the ground in front of them, faster than Serena could follow as all of Route Four's destruction seemed to happen in reverse.

Trees that were uprooted and tossed asunder were swallowed by the glowing green ground, sprouted from the soil as seedlings, and grew into full sized Oaks, Oran Berry trees, and countless other species, all in the span of a heartbeat. The trees shed their leaves millions at a time, and the leaves rotted as they hit the forest floor, the fields, and clearings all throughout one of the bigger routes in the Kalos region, the grass sprouted, crater impacts that had punched holes miles deep into the earth were filled back in by green glowing mudslides, and the grass fully grew the instant the holes were filled back in, all in a matter of seconds. Berries were seeded and became fully ripe once more, flowers grew again, and in less than a minute, the entire forest and all of Route 4 had regained all of its lost vitality, plant life, and was once again vibrant and teeming with life.

Serena and Delphox stared around them in utter astonishment as the Route stopped glowing, all the damage completely undone; the world itself healed by the unparalleled might of the Pokemon God. "That was the most _amazing_ thing I have ever seen in my entire life!" Serena exclaimed emphatically, and Arceus smiled in proud satisfaction. She was glad she had been able to help in some small way and relieved when Pokemon started returning from their hiding places deep underground or as far away from Route 4 as they could possibly run. Ash's Mana had ensured they were protected from the destruction, hell even the select few trainers who were caught in the storm out here had been safely lowered into the newly repaired forest environment, and Arceus could sense that he was as aware of her presence here as she was of his, having not been surprised by the forest's sudden comeback in the slightest and glad she was here to help out.

'_Now child, understand that nobody was hurt or killed by this storm, so you need not fret or worry about your friends, family, and any innocent bystanders caught by the strong winds. Miraculously there has been absolutely no loss of life,_' Arceus promised her, and Serena let go of a breath she didn't know she had been holding, a huge weight lifting from her shoulders as she looked up at Arceus with pride and with gratitude. "You were behind that though, weren't you? You kept the world safe from this storm, Arceus, you're _so_ amazing, any trainer would be lucky to have you and not just because you're legendary, honestly I couldn't really care less about your stature as a legendary Pokemon, but because you were willing to do everything in your power to protect the world you call home from adversity," Serena sighed dreamily, wishing beyond almost everything else that Arceus would agree to befriend her as her trainer. She could only dream of obtaining a Pokemon like this, Arceus was truly one of a kind, maybe even among her own species. She started envisioning the kinds of performances she could possibly do with a Pokemon like Arceus on her team, and she became more excited about the whole absurd idea of it than she had been about anything lately, knowing that it was just a pipe dream but enjoying the fantasy nonetheless.

Arceus found herself feeling amazed by the directions Serena's thoughts were going in, she truly, deeply loved the idea of adding her to her team of performers but had convinced herself that it could never really happen. She didn't want to get Serena's hopes up about capturing her anytime soon, but she wasn't about to immediately shoot down the idea of joining Serena's roster, which she treated like a family more than a team of monsters she kept in her pocket sized Pokeballs. She found herself wanting to take credit for everything good that had happened on this day, but knew that Ash was due just as much credit as she was, if not even more.

'_Child, I am flattered by how highly you think of me, and I would like to tell you that I am behind everything, including the protection of the entire world from that storm, but I am not the one who shielded the Solar System from such an overwhelmingly powerful storm. There are forces at work in this world that supersede even me, and just so you know, you are the first human to have ever seen me in my Ascension form, maybe not my Father the Original Arceus, but I have only just gained all of my life plates recently and only now have the means to use and access the unlimited powers of my Omni Plate._

_Anyways Serena, I am behind the restoration of Route 4 and other places throughout the world that were damaged, but I only showed up on earth about half-way through the storm. Whoever, or whatever was protecting it before then, he or she is beyond the scope of my current abilities and power levels_,' Arceus admitted in a lengthy explanation as Serena tried to process this information. If Arceus wasn't behind all of that, then who else had the power to shield an entire world from a potentially planet breaking storm? She found herself anticipating the answer to that question, and finding out the truth, knowing that whoever was responsible for it may have also been responsible for just saving the entire world. If she ever found out who this person or Pokemon was, she'd just want to say thank you, but in the meantime, since the storm finally let up, she and her Pokemon could continue their journey to Santalune city and her efforts to track down Ash. She didn't dwell on the thought of adding Arceus to her team, knowing it was impossible and not wanting to torture herself over it.

'_Child, what if I told you that the two of us were meant to meet, that I was considering joining your roster at some future date? What would you say to that?_' Arceus telepathically questioned, and Serena found herself laughing for some reason. "I'd say it would be too good to be true, that you would never go for it," she admitted sorrowfully, a sad smile on her face as she felt the full impact of her desire for this Pokemon to join her team for the first time, knowing how desperately she wanted to make use of its potentially infinite applications for Pokemon performing and how badly she wished to take the Pokemon Showcasing circuit by storm in ways no other performer ever has before. She knew she was being selfish with this line of thinking and forced herself to think about what Arceus would want, seriously doubting a legendary could be captured anyways and refusing to fool herself into believing it was even a remote possibility.

'_Serena, I know you've convinced yourself it is impossible for me to ever consider it, but I'm not so full of myself that I think myself too good for any Pokemon trainer. Given your surprisingly humble thought process and your willingness to put my needs above your own despite how obvious it is that you wish for me to join forces with you, I'd say you're already well on your way to becoming a Pokemon trainer worthy of any and all legendary species, including me._

_I will give you an ultimatum Serena, I will be happy to join your team, but not yet. First there are some conditions I have for you to fulfill on your end and if you really wish for me to join your team I'll hope you'll consent to fulfilling them. I have three conditions, one, is that you rendezvous at our meeting place with Ash and his traveling group once you catch up to him, and believe me you will, and once you do I want you to wait for me at a place called the Pokemon Village located southwest of Snowbelle city, do you know where that is?!_' Arceus started questioningly.

Serena nodded, explaining quickly how she had visited there one time during her preparations for a Pokemon Showcase in Snowbelle city a couple of years back. It was also during that time she spent a painstaking number of hours trying to find a Hexa Perfect Ditto and capture it so she could trade it for one of Calem's Feebas that he caught during her journey through Sinnoh, and that was how she had obtained the Pokemon that would become her Hexa Perfect Milotic. She hadn't expected him to give her a perfect one with its hidden ability and an infinite IV spread but she was grateful he did, and she knew Calem would take really good care of that Ditto.

'_Good, so you know where I mean, that makes things simpler for me to explain. I wish for you to meet me there in precisely six months, during the Winter Solstice at 8:00 PM sharp when the sundial of Anistar city is shining its brilliant light. It is at this time or during the summer solstice you will be able to see a glittering in the ground near the cave at the northernmost part of the Pokemon Village, this is where another Omni Plate is secretly buried beneath the earth, visible only on the summer Solstice at 8 PM, so remember that okay? Go there and grab the Omni Plate, it will shrink to accommodate you being smaller than I am, and then I want you to entrust that Omni Plate to Ash, do you understand_?" Arceus continued once she was sure she had Serena's undivided attention, and its statement caused Serena to furrow her eyebrows in confusion.

"Why Ash, I mean what does he have to do with any of this?" she couldn't help but wonder, and Arceus smiled internally, having anticipated that question and announcing her answer before Serena even fully finished the question. '_More than you think, plus Ash will have sufficient power as a Pokemon trainer to keep it safe. Also he and I have met once before, back in Michina town so I do trust in his abilities, though I also equally trust you don't need to know too much more beyond that,_' Arceus replied, but by this point Serena's shock threshold was pretty high and she and Delphox did little more than quirk an eyebrow at that statement. Inside however, Serena was amazed that Ash hadn't opted to capture Arceus himself during that incident, if he knew what an incredible Pokemon she was surely he must have been at least slightly tempted, anyone who wouldn't be was either certifiably insane or the happiest, most satisfied man on earth.

'_Del, Delphox, Del_,' Serena's starter said out of the blue, and Arceus nodded in some sort of unspoken agreement. "What did she say?" Serena couldn't help but wonder; and Arceus chuckled. '_She said you would need to increase your ranking as a trainer in order to carry more than six Pokemon, and she doubted any one of them would be willing to leave your one and only roster and group of six. I told her it was a non issue because I plan to give you something once we part ways this day that will circumvent the entire Pokeball System without actually breaking any of the laws your Pokemon Leagues impose on you,_' Arceus replied, and Serena wondered what she meant by that, though she figured she would get her answer once she finished accepting Arceus's terms and conditions prior to her capturing her.

'_Anyways, yes, my first condition is that you travel to the Pokemon Village once again in exactly six month's time, it shouldn't take too long if you've got a fast Pokemon to give you a ride or you take the Lumiose trains that connect to Kiloude City and Snowbelle City respectively, but anyways, once you get there with Ash and the others, unbury the Omni Plate and entrust it to Ash. Once you do that, I will appear to you and your friends_,' Arceus instructed, and Serena nodded briskly, waiting for her hopefully soon to be legendary Pokemon to finish listing her conditions and hoping that said conditions were within her capabilities.

'_My next condition is that when we do meet at the Pokemon village, you and I will do battle for your chance to capture me, also I want to face a team that will be able to weaken me to the point where you can safely catch me, in other words, I expect a challenge when next we meet, so train your Pokemon and any others you may or may not catch to the highest level of infinity if you can, because by then I will probably be level infinity myself but don't worry, I won't be using my Ascension form so you'll just have to worry about all my individual types and my judgement attack which is always guaranteed to be the same type that I myself am sporting, so if you can do that I'd really appreciate it, also don't be afraid to ask Ash to help you train in preparation for this because I am sure you could use his help,_' Arceus carried on, and Serena found herself hesitating for the first time. Her Pokemon may have been Hexa Perfect but could she really fully train all six of them to level infinity in time for her battle with Arceus, and did she really want to train them that high? She then thought about the possible applications for having level infinity Pokemon in Pokemon Showcases and the fact that she was being given an opportunity few if any humans at all had ever been given, the chance to battle an Arceus in her effort to capture it and add it to her family, because as far as she was concerned, her Pokemon were her family not her possessions.

Arceus continued once it became clear that Serena was still going to follow through with her conditions, and she was pleased that her possible future trainer was willing to go to all this trouble, even straying outside of her comfort zone by redoubling her efforts to fully train her entire team in preparation of their battle. '_My final condition is this, and it is actually more of a request than anything. Serena, be careful in the coming days... dark and difficult times lie ahead; and soon far worse than today's storm will shake the world at its very foundations. You need to be ready to face anything and expect the totally unexpected, I also tentatively suggest that you make use of this gift I am about to give to you and when you do finally capture me, that you keep me on your roster at all times. I want to be there in case you or your friends need my help_,' Arceus finished, concluding her conditions with a cryptic undertone that made Serena shudder involuntarily, wondering what her soon to be legendary Pokemon capture meant by that. While she was overjoyed at the prospect of being able to battle Arceus for a chance to prove her worth as its trainer, she wondered if Arceus's induction into her team was not simply because Arceus genuinely wished for her to be its trainer, but rather because she was meant to be or some great calamity would befall the earth she loved if she wasn't there to help Serena rise to a level of mastery no other performer in all of history had ever before attained. She hoped that in time, Arceus will have joined her roster because she genuinely wanted to and liked her, not because she felt that she had any obligation to whatsoever.

Arceus smiled once more upon hearing what Serena was thinking, and somehow she knew she had made the right decision by trusting Serena with the opportunity to capture her at a later date. It would no doubt be an enormous test of Serena's patience, to wait a whole half a year knowing she could possibly capture Arceus right now, but it was necessary, because what was coming in about a year's time or so would require her to be present in Ash's traveling entourage and honestly Serena truly seemed like she could become a truly dedicated Pokemon master in time, with the right push; so Arceus was more than willing to give her a chance, just like she had given Damos so long ago, only for her to think he betrayed her when he really didn't.

Somehow knowing that Damos was never actually responsible for her loss of her Jewel of Life had restored her faith in humanity; and Serena seemed like she would treat Arceus like a queen. She could sense just by looking at them that Serena's Pokemon loved her to the moon and back again a thousand times over, her starter Pokemon as well was unconditionally loyal and loved her trainer more than life itself. Truly these things were the mark of a true champion of Pokemon in the making, but once you added to that the fact that she was not only as powerful in her mastery over Aura, Mana, and Chi as Ash himself was but also that she was connected to him, the Chosen Champion of her Father himself on a deeply emotional and quintessential level, and you had a trainer with the potential to take the entire world by storm and to make history in ways that even the World Champions themselves never have before.

"So what is it you wanted to give to me?" Serena wondered, sensing that their meeting was almost at its conclusion, at least for today. She knew she had a busy few months ahead of her fraught with training her Pokemon to become almighty examples of their species, a feat that would enable her to battle Arceus at her best in the Pokemon village and hopefully give her the ability to capture her. She couldn't believe that Arceus was giving her such a grand opportunity, and had to blink her eyes and pinch herself several times to convince herself that this was really, truly happening, and even then the overwhelming surreality of this entire situation and the idea of capturing a Pokemon of such a godlike caliber was giving Serena a serious migraine.

Arceus almost looked glad she asked, and conjured a strange, diamond shaped jewel from out of thin air, one that appeared directly in front of Serena and radiated a strange power, shimmering with a harsh, almost blinding golden light. Quickly grabbing the floating, glowing gold gem and inspecting it, Serena looked at it up close and realized that she was looking into infinity itself. The gemstone, whatever it was, somehow broke all known laws of physics by containing an infinite amount of space within it but without actually occupying all that much space outside of itself in the physical world.

"This is so cool, but what is it exactly?" Serena couldn't help but wonder, at a loss to explain how something like this could even work; its qualities seemed almost mystical. '_It is known as an Astral Gem, extremely rare in today's day and age and the precursor of the Pokeball. In ancient times pieces of the moon fell towards earth, these moonstones were already infused with limitless cosmic energy from outer space and upon falling to earth, mixed together with the unlimited natural energies of legendary Pokemon and level infinity Pokemon to create these gemstones like the one you have now._

_It has mystical properties Serena, and will allow you to capture any and all Pokemon without fail, the infinite inner space allowing you to store infinite amounts of anything or any sentient beings, including people and Pokemon alike. You can even use it to snag other trainer's Pokemon much to the chagrin of the Pokeball's Anti-Theft protection technologies, though I wouldn't recommend it unless you were engaging bastards similar to members of Team Cipher. You can hold an unlimited number of Pokemon and items in that one gemstone Serena; and you can capture any Pokemon you choose, so use it wisely and don't be a thief whatever you do. Whenever you have an opportunity to catch a Pokemon with it, simply aim your Astral Gem's top at the Pokemon in question and speak the words 'capture on,' that will shoot out a white capture beam that never fails to catch any Pokemon legendary, level infinity, hexa perfect, or otherwise. Hell, you could even capture me right now if you really wanted to, and I would not even try to stop you, but like I said, you'll be able to try and catch me six months from today and if you do so too soon and don't prove your worth as my trainer, if you take the selfish route as so many before you have, then you doom humanity to repeating history in a never-ending cycle, one that can't be broken. Serena, a storm much worse than this is coming soon, and you all better batten down the hatches because when it hits, you're all going to come to the shocking realization that not only is there so much more to reality than just our universe, but we are also hopelessly, hilariously outmanned and outgunned,_' Arceus explained to her, and Serena gazed at the kid's top shaped gemstone in her hand in an entirely new light, an involuntary shudder quaking her entire body as she processed the rest of Arceus's statement.

"How are these things not illegal?! And what kind of storm are you talking about?!" she questioned in stunned disbelief, unable to bring herself to thank Arceus for this incredible gift that made an utter fool out of all the hard work the Pokemon League had put into the Pokeballs and their efforts to restrict the powers of Pokemon with irresponsible, ignorant, or uneducated trainers who could destroy the world if they didn't know what they were doing. The simple fact that anyone could catch and train any Pokemon to have potentially planet busting strength or bodies that could move at infinite velocities has been the source of controversy among Pokemon Researchers and League Officials for centuries. This gemstone completely overturned decade's worth of efforts to restrict Pokemon trainers who couldn't handle Pokemon of that stature or level of power. Then again, if what Arceus said about aliens and all that omni-shit was true, then maybe reaching a level of infinity was the only way to combat these extra-dimensional forces. She didn't like the sound of whatever future Arceus was describing, but that didn't diminish her appreciation for the gifts Arceus was bestowing to her, particularly the beautiful gem glowing in her hand but more importantly, the profoundly once in a lifetime opportunity to challenge Arceus to a battle for the rights to add the legendary Alpha Pokemon to her roster.

"Is this really alright for me to have?" she added in amazement. '_They aren't illegal because they're supposed to be extinct in this world. Back in ancient and Medieval times Astral Gems were rare even then, and only high ranking Creature Masters and members of the Monarchy were in possession of them or any of their variants. The one I have just given you is the most popular and rarest variant of the Astral Gemstones, not only will it allow you to carry infinite Pokemon and items all in one, it will glow different colors depending on the types of Pokemon you are close to, and will glow golden like it is right now when you are near a Perfect or Legendary Creature of any kind, in other words it has a built-in IV calculator and can act as a beacon to any Hexa Perfect Pokemon, legendary or otherwise._

_And yes Serena, I would consider it a personal offense if you didn't accept my gift; I want you to use it to contain your current team instead of their Pokeballs, and me as well when you are finally able to battle and capture me, trust me Serena I have no doubt in your abilities. A grand and honorable destiny awaits you, one that is fraught with danger and many various tests of your innate character, so when you're living your great adventure just remember that it was given to you out of love from my father_,' Arceus stated mysteriously, and Serena nodded with a dazzling smile, wanting to test out her new toy right away as she turned to Delphox, who had an eager look on her face as Serena pointed her Astral gem at her starter. She was curious about what grand fate destiny had in store for her, but she decided to put off asking anymore questions of Arceus and just focus on trying out her very rare Astral Gem, which glowed bright, neon gold upon being pointed at Delphox, and flickered gold six more times, which Arceus explained meant that there were seven Hexa Perfect Pokemon really close to her.

Serena knew this device would come in extremely handy, but also realized she need to exercise extreme caution and restraint so as not to accidentally snatch somebody else's Pokemon. After pointing it at Delphox, Serena said the words "capture on" and waited. A beam of white light shot out from the point of the gem and enveloped Delphox, which was about the same size as the palm of her hand and was connected to a metal chain that she could put around her neck. Delphox dematerialized and vanished inside the beam which got sucked back in the gemstone, traveling in reverse and creating a tiny, shrunken silhouette of her fire fox Pokemon surrounded by an infinite expanse of nothingness and white space shrunken down to tiny proportions.

'_My father the Original Arceus called those gems Micro Totalities, a fitting name for them because they are literally infinitely spacious pocket dimensions shrunken down to hand sized proportions, now, why don't you lay out your other Pokeballs and use the Gem's capture beam on them, trust me you won't need to release your other team members_,' Arceus suggested tentatively, and Serena couldn't believe what she was seeing. She'd never have to buy another Pokeball again and the best part is that would save her a ton of money. She could return the ultra pack of eight Pokeballs, eight Great Balls, and eight Ultra Balls she bought but never used for a large sum of money to pay for a night at the best hotel in Lumiose.

Quickly following Arceus's instructions, Serena withdrew her five remaining team members' Pokeballs from her bag and laid them out in a row on the forest floor, going back and pointing her astral gem at the middle Pokeball, hoping that she could somehow recapture all of her Pokemon at once. As if knowing what she was thinking, Arceus quickly interjected with some more instructions. '_If you wish to capture more than one Pokemon at a time, simply say 'captures on' with a plural instead of 'capture on.' I hope you enjoy the gift Serena, and I look forward to us meeting again, but for now I should probably depart from this place_,' Arceus said, and Serena sensed that it was time for them to say goodbye, knowing that she would see it again before she knew it but going to miss her nonetheless. She hadn't known Arceus for very long, probably half an hour or an hour at most, but she has learned so much in such a short amount of time that the Alpha Pokemon already felt like kin to her.

"Goodbye Arceus, I hope we see each other again very soon, thank you for everything. Man, I can't wait to tell professor Sycamore and especially Ash about this, Sycamore will flip and I'm sure Ash will to, my God, I can't wait to see him again," Serena admitted with a full body blush, heat resonating throughout her entire upper and lower body at the thought of seeing her crush and the love of her life once again and telling him all that she had been afraid to tell him when they were both kids.

Arceus nodded at her statement and reverted back to her normal form in a flash of golden light, taking off into the skies at the speed of sound and disappearing into a portal that opened in the sky, one that Serena somehow sensed could connect to infinite times and places and even infinite universes like some kind of wormhole. Serena watched in wonder as Arceus vanished in the portal and it closed up behind her in a flash of white light, knowing that this day would be one she would never forget as she fully realized what would go down when next they met. She couldn't believe Arceus was willing to give her a chance to become its trainer, and she hoped when the time came for her to battle it she'd be able to beat her, and hopefully bring out her full potential as her trainer. Yet despite her bubbly excitement and happiness, she wondered what dark times lay ahead that had Arceus so on edge, but she decided to put it out of her head for now and just focus on the positives, a trait she picked up from Ash back when they were best friends. One may not have known it based on how Serena behaved now, but she actually had a very defeatist attitude back before she met Ash, and would always give up on trying any new things as soon as those endeavors became even the slightest bit hard for her. He taught her to never give up and to go for whatever goals she was striving towards, to go for broke as her mother would say. He taught her that the only thing standing in the way of her achieving every goal that she set for herself was her, and that there were no limits to what she could achieve so long as she had the heart and soul to reach for the stars.

She was so caught up in her excitement for December 21st and meeting Ash again that it was a full minute by time she remembered Arceus's gift or the fact that her team's Pokeballs were lying on the forest floor, waiting for her to recapture them in a new kind of containment system, one with more than enough space to contain any and all Pokemon she ever could capture and still let them be comfortable. With a deep intake of breath, Serena pointed her astral gem at the middle Pokeball in the row of five once more and spoke the words Arceus told her to speak whenever she wished to make a capture, and in five simultaneous beam of light, her five remaining Pokeballs were emptied and all six members of her team appeared in the infinitely vast white space of her gemstone, shrunken down so small they were almost invisible to the naked eye.

Knowing that she could capture as many Pokemon as she wanted to now without having to worry about beating elite or champion level trainers, Serena opted to make use of her gift from Arceus as soon as she found Ash and he let her travel with him. Everything was falling into place, and since she now had the means to obtaining competitively perfect Pokemon, she was planning on capturing as many Pokemon as she could and training them up in time for her epic showdown with the most powerful Pokemon in the universe, hoping beyond hope that she could manage it and scarcely able to imagine the infinite possibilities that came with entering an Arceus in her Pokemon showcases.

With a spring in her step and a beautiful humming song in her voice as she practically skipped along, Serena picked up her five empty Pokeballs, shrunk them down, put them in her bag, and walked the relatively short distance to the next town, knowing that Ash was there waiting for her and that she was closer to him than she been in eight years. This was, without a doubt, the most exciting, most eventful, and perhaps one of the greatest days of Serena Yvonne's life. For all her years of suffering from chronic depression and loneliness following her forced departure from Ash and Pallet town, there was finally a light at the end of the long and dark tunnel, and she knew that when she walked into that light she would come to a far better place. Despite Arceus's warnings that dark and difficult times lie ahead, Serena found her resolve strengthening tenfold, because just the thought of being with Ash through all of these adversities was enough to make even her darkest nightmares a million times brighter. She should have been at least somewhat afraid, but couldn't muster up any fear in these crucial moments, memories of her days as a scared, shy little girl and meeting Ash for the first time flashing through her mind. For the first time in so many years, Serena felt truly happy, whole, optimistic, and complete...

XXXXX

_About 1 Hour Earlier_

Ash kept his inner, telepathic eye fixed on both Clement and Bonnie, who stood suspended in a bubble of pure energy generated by his Mega evolved Lucario, whom he had released and mega evolved in an effort to take some of the load off of his own Aura, Mana, and Chi, which were slowly slipping out of his control. The good thing was, that unlike in his normal form, his Mega Lucario was not only level infinity in his mega form, but like Ash had infinite amounts of Aura, Mana, Chi, and countless other unidentified and untapped spiritual powers. The blonde haired siblings were far enough away in the storm that they couldn't see Ash doing his thing, but he could sense that Bonnie was beginning to suspect that he was hiding things, and her suspicion would only be furthered when the storm was inexplicably stopped, just as soon as she and Clement were unable to see Ash or be around when he put an end to all this.

The storm was getting worse now, not better, and if he didn't do everything he could to drain the atmosphere of all its infinite amounts of electrical energy, he could put the safety of the planet at risk. Compared to that, to the lives of billions of humans and Pokemon alike, risking his own life to drain that much energy all at once was a small price to pay, even if he was an important individual to the protection of the planet, he was not irreplaceable, a fact that he was always painfully aware of.

Mega Lucario was grunting in disapproval at Ash's idea, and to Ash's astonishment his shiny Mew had popped out of her master ball in a flash of white light upon sensing her trainer's intentions. '_Please don't do this Ash; there is no need to risk your own life. You know as well as I do that either me or Mewtwo in its Mega Z form can dispel this storm cloud a lot easier than you could_,' Mew pointed out matter-of-factly as Ash gazed at her in her human form, genuinely surprised by how attractive and gorgeous she looked in her human guise and remembering a Latias he encountered in Altomare who kissed him and made Butterfree's turn his stomach into a mosh pit, her human form appealing and easy on the eyes.

Mew had gotten quite accustomed to taking the form of a petite, sunny blonde haired girl who looked to be in her late teenage years, with baby blue eyes and a flawless looking face. Her clothing consisted of the same color scheming as both her shiny and non shiny forms, with a modest pink skirt and a blue tank top that accentuated her perfect dips and curves as well as her double d-cup breasts.

Ash knew it was just a human guise, but Mew pulled it off so well he found herself being drawn to her despite the circumstances, despite the fact that society condemned Pokephilea or any relations between humans and Pokemon beyond friendship or a familial bond, despite the fact that Mew would have to stay in her human form for him forever and never be allowed to reveal her true nature, not even to his friends and family many of whom were shockingly narrow minded and intolerant, despite everything stacked against the two of them as a couple.

Even as he contemplated her statement, Ash thought about how he and Mew shared a special bond. She had watched over him like a guardian angel since he was a baby, protecting him, keeping him safe from everything, even from the sickle of the reaper itself during each and every bout he had with death. She had watched him grow up, watched him transform from a cute boy into a strong young man, and like Latias she had fallen in love with him somewhere along the way, a fact he always tried to remember with her being on his team and having ample opportunity to change his mind, via seduction or any number of other tactics. Seeing her now, in this flawless human appearance caused his body to react against his will in ways that his mother might have felt was wildly inappropriate for him to be feeling in the close proximity of a Pokemon, whether legendary or not.

"I'll risk it, rather me than any of my Pokemon Mew, I don't want to risk you or anyone of my other Pokemon's lives," Ash admitted, knowing he didn't have time to argue with Mew right now and knowing she was going to put up a fight with his willingness to risk his life so unnecessarily. '_Ash, your body may not be able to handle that much energy, you'll die_,' she pointed out, an immeasurably concerned and worried look in her beautiful blue eyes. Ash sighed and walked over to her, putting his hands on her now perfectly human shoulders, still not used to seeing her in this form but knowing that he liked it despite himself.

"Thank you for worrying about me, but _I have to try_! Pikachu is out of commission and I don't have mega Sceptile on my team right now to safely absorb all of that energy! I honestly don't know what the fuck else I am supposed to do Mew!" Ash admitted in fearful exclamation, knowing full well that he could die from this action and fearing for his life. As much as chronic depression had sunk its claws into him in recent years, especially following his heartbreaking breakup with Dawn, Ash had never once had any suicidal thoughts and could never imagine putting his Pokemon, his mom, or his friends through that. Looking above him at the pitch dark and angry sky, Ash felt fear welling up inside of him as he could feel all the electric and kinetic energy inside of that massive, planet sized cloud and for the first time, didn't know for certain if he could survive this.

He was also aware of the fact that the Arceus from the Michina town incident had arrived on the scene and was intercepting lightning bolts and absorbing them before they could touch the ground. He was astounded to sense the power of omnipotence itself coming off of a gigantic life plate within Arceus that she never had before, the same omnipotent powers he could sense his Mew radiating, and even now in her human form her powers were still fully intact.

"Alright, I need to do this as soon as possible, wish me luck guys," Ash smiled sadly, gazing at Mew a little longer than his Mega Lucario while steeling himself for the electric shock of a lifetime, knowing that even his Aura, Mana, and Chi could offer limited protection and that he would have to time this perfectly so that his spiritual powers were poised to absorb all of the energy so his body didn't go into cardiac arrest upon receiving the thunderbolt. Mega Lucario was maintaining a Mana powered hold over the solar system so Ash could focus all of his power on absorbing the infinite megawatts from the atmosphere. It was also sustaining the shield that protected Bonnie and Clement and rendered the entire world population completely temporarily invulnerable, keeping every living thing on the planet alive.

A soft coo caught his attention as he realized Mew was gazing at him almost pleadingly, silently imploring with him not to do this yet somehow sensing that she couldn't change his mind at the same time. '_Ash, I can't watch you do this to yourself, please, let me do it instead, I can handle this charge a lot better than you can, and my body is infinitely more naturally powerful than yours. Please don't do this_,' Mew begged him in her most adorable, most attractive feminine voice ever, turning on her charm in an effort to keep him from going through with this, but Ash's mind was already made up.

"But there is always that what if situation for me Mew, I can't risk your life or any of my other Pokemon knowing that I can get the job done just as efficiently. If I time it right, I should come out of this unscathed, plus this way, nobody else has to get hurt... or worse," Ash murmured uncertainly, knowing full well that he could still die but dead set in his desire to keep his Pokemon out of this situation. Was he risking his life, definitely, but he definitely wasn't risking it unnecessarily.

Mew was all-powerful with certain limitations to her powers in place, so there was always a chance that this was the day that the thunderbolt or dangerous situation did her in. He couldn't risk her health, he cared about her too much, and knowing that she had limitless power was not enough to sway him in the slightest. He had seen what could happen to gods and godlike beings that became too arrogant or too complacent with their powers, or simply had too much faith in their own invincibility for their own good. It was never a pretty sight, and he didn't want Mew to think that just because she was completely physically indestructible that she could solve all of his problems for him. This was his mess, or rather Pikachu's mess, and ultimately he was responsible for cleaning it up since Pikachu had knocked itself out.

Mew huffed indignantly at him, knowing there was no way to change his mind and seeming to accept that he wouldn't cater to her, not this time. '_FINE, if you want to go and get yourself killed then go ahead, see if I care_!" she screamed at him telepathically, though Ash could see the traitorous tears welling in her beautiful eyes that contradicted her statement. He didn't have much time left before the storm became unstoppable, but right now the entire world could have broken forever more and he wouldn't have cared. Right now, all he cared about was placating Mew and assuring her he'd come back to her and all his other Pokemon alive. Without a doubt, she had become the most important Pokemon on his entire roster to him in a short amount of time; he loved her, and if they lived in less narrow minded, intolerant times, a relationship between them might have been possible.

"I am truly sorry," he smiled sadly, pulling her into a hug and feeling her stiffen in his embrace, but she quickly relaxed and hugged him back even as countless flashes of lightning turned the entire world neon blue, like a billion fireworks going off at once. '_Before you try and save the world again and risk dying, can you, can we um... you know, in case I never... see you again,_' she stuttered uncertainly, clearly not sure how to voice her request but surprised when Ash immediately understood. "Alright, but just this once Mew, and understand that if I come out of this alive nothing has changed. We can't be together, you and I have a mutual understanding of this fact and that isn't changing, at least not anytime soon," Ash said, granting her request with a gentle but firm undertone, warning her not to get her hopes up and that if she didn't want to stay on his team of Pokemon after this incident he'd understand completely.

Smiling brightly at him for the first time since appearing from her Master Ball to try and persuade him not to take his humungous risk, Mew giggled cutely and planted a searing hot kiss on his lips that he felt all the way down in his toes. Even though he enjoyed it immensely and returned the passionate lip lock with equal fervor, something deep inside of Ash's soul told him this was _wrong_ somehow, and not because it was Pokephilea, he'd never had a problem with the idea of human and Pokemon relations, no something inside him told him that somebody else was destined to be his soul mate. Regardless, he ignored this quintessential part of him and just enjoyed this moment with Mew, his most trusted and powerful Pokemon, even more so than Pikachu actually. She had known him longer, technically, then any of his other Pokemon had known him, and upon realizing all she had done for him throughout his entire journey Ash knew he was forever indebted to her, he would always be grateful for her presence in his life.

The kiss deepened even as booms of thunder and flashes of lightning clashed all around them, the torrential rain suddenly pouring down on them and soaking them both to the skin, but somehow that just made the kiss even hotter as Mew's arms snaked around his neck and his hands held her by her thin waist. He quickly opened his eyes to find hers closed while kissing him and almost laughed upon realizing that he was a foot taller than her in this guise, forcing her to step on her tip toes in order to reach his mouth. He was surprised however when her tongue started caressing his lips, seeking entrance, and he permitted it just this once, knowing that she needed closure, needed this before he went off to risk life and limb for the safety of the world once more. It wasn't just the possibility of never seeing him in the world of the living again, Mew needed release and upon sealing the deal and turning the kiss into a Kalosian kiss, Ash knew in his heart of hearts that there were still some things in his life worth living for.

Her tongue was incredibly wet and warm while exploring every corner of his mouth, tasting absolutely wonderful and filling his nostrils and every fibre of his being with a strange taste that while not entirely human was completely intoxicating. Soon though Ash knew he had to pull away, but it was ridiculous how good she was at this, and he couldn't help enjoying it like a piece of the forbidden fruit. If he didn't pull away soon though, it may become harder for Mew to let him go when the time came for him to try and settle down with someone, namely Serena if he wasn't able to resist the pull of the soul bond between them. Somehow, just thinking of Serena was enough to make Ash pull away, and as he did a line of drool connected his mouth with Mew's as a deafening boom of thunder startled them and made them jump, their arms still wrapped around each other protectively as though the both of them were reluctant to completely let go of one another.

"That was..." Ash panted breathlessly, '_fantastic, thank you so much for doing that for me Ash, I didn't think you'd get that into it though and somehow that just made it hotter_,' she admitted, her voice steady as he realized she wasn't even out of breath. Quickly noting that Mew could have kept that kiss going for an unlimited amount of time due to her body's boundless lung capacity, Ash turned his full, undivided attention towards the sky above them. He had stalled long enough, and Mew looked fully relaxed and like she had gotten a huge weight off her chest by kissing him so passionately, taking him by the hand and refusing to leave his side.

Ash fought down a blush upon feeling her small, warm hand enclosing upon his own, knowing it was useless to ask her to return and just letting her remain beside him in her beautiful human form, though frankly he thought she was beautiful no matter what, and she didn't have to appear human for him to like her. That being said, even if he somehow managed to completely circumvent his soul bond with Serena without damaging either one of them and managed to start a relationship with Mew, then what? Thinking about how much people tended to hate what they didn't understand, and how ignorant and intolerant they were against people who had fallen in love with their Pokemon partners, Ash knew he couldn't put Mew through that. He could more than handle whatever dirty insults such people would throw at him, but Mew, they'd eat her alive and no matter what happened he didn't want to have to constantly look over their shoulders, or worry about what his friends and family might think, or even something as stupid as what the laws were, knowing that in many places across the world Pokephilea was in fact totally illegal and was considered a serious crime, punishable by life in prison without chance of parole.

As all these thoughts tumbled around inside his head and he wondered if he could ever give Mew what she sought, Ash multitasked by instructing his Mega Lucario to gently lower all living things caught up in the storm once he managed to absorb its energy, including Bonnie and Clement who were protected and suspended in an impenetrable force field of pure energy, giving it his instructions through the power of aura. These thoughts of the world and Pokephilea and all the minor issues Ash was facing seemed so small in comparison to the vastness of the pitch dark sky above him, yet they provided ample distraction from his fear and allowed him to channel all of his feelings for Mew and his other Pokemon as well as his strong familial bonds with Clement and Bonnie into this monumental task laid out in front of him. He thought about everyone whose lives were in danger, all of his friends, family members, and every individual person he'd met throughout his journey, all the people whose lives he'd had an impact on, Ash felt the familiar hum of magical energy bubbling under his skin as he quickly took control of his unlimited Mana.

Letting go of Mew's, warm, soft hand and feeling comfort from her presence right there beside him, Ash closed his eyes focused on all the infinite spiritual powers inside of him, ever aware of the constant thrum of boundless energy inside of him, knowing that if he could manifest enough control over his almighty Mana he could act as an irresistible lightning rod to all the electrical energy currently seeded inside the storm cloud. Mew smiled warmly upon watching his body glow with a blinding pink light, a pulse of almighty magical energy coming off him in waves and following his every command. His Mana manipulation actually afforded him the same capabilities as an all-powerful master of all magic in totality itself, and could be used to a near infinite number of effects and could potentially affect the entire Omega Omnisphere, though only when used at its ultimate levels of power, which required immense concentration, absolute willpower, and countless years of training from the user.

The storm seemed to send all of its energy into one spot as the massive black cloud opened up and the entire sky turned a brilliant blue far brighter than any daytime atmosphere. Mew could sense that it was working, and watched in a strange mix of awe and overwhelming concern for her trainer and the one being in all the universes that she totally loved. Almost as fast as her super brain could think, a massive tower of highly concentrated, ten feet wide lightning fell upon Ash and battered his Mana induced shield like a battering ram striking a wooden castle door.

Mew couldn't bring herself to look away even as Ash screamed in desperation and pure determination at the same time, absolutely refusing to let the energy overpower him as electrical energy continuously poured into his shield and his body with no end in sight. Mew was just about to intervene when she saw Ash raise his hand and shout at her not to get involved through the power of his aura, effectively stopping her in her tracks.

Mega Lucario concentrated on its job so it could not help Ash, but Mew could sense all of Ash's other Pokemon shouting words of encouragement, reminding him of his and Serena's catchphrase to never give up until the end, his history with his childhood best friend never failing to make Mew feel jealous and envious of the girl. Wherever she was or whatever she had been up to, Serena had no idea of the level of impact she had on Ash's entire outlook on life, or how much she had impacted his every decision since she and he had parted ways. Even now, eight years after her move, Ash was still truly, deeply, madly enamored with her, and Mew knew that even though Ash had enjoyed the kiss they just shared, anything she could do to make him feel good, Serena could do even better. They were destined for one another, true, literal soul mates in every sense of the word, and Mew knew she would just have to accept that and hopefully find a way to move on, maybe fall in love with one of Ash's other Pokemon or get to know them a bit. The bitter irony was that Ash didn't even seem aware of the fact that he loved Serena,

She was aware of Charizard and a fainted Pikachu and Dedenne closing in on their location, the fire and flying type having given up on trying to fly in these crazy winds and running at hypersonic velocities on foot, working on damage control and making sure the other humans and Pokemon waiting out the storm were still okay before deciding to join up with them later. Mew looked on in relief as the storm clouds began thinning and Ash's shield and body held out against the constant assault of an almighty electric shock, the likes of which he had no tolerance to even with Pikachu shocking him at times. Finally, after what felt like a small eternity of agonizing and loathing anticipation for Mew, the last of the storm's energy had been swallowed up by Ash's Mana and the storm cloud that was once so impressive had completely dissipated, leaving bright blue skies and a fresh scent of calm and serenity in its place.

Ash collapsed into the dirt, and Mew was by his side in a flash of near light speed, making sure he was okay before anything else. '_Ash, please speak to me, you're not hurt are you?! Please be okay, I can't survive without you_,' Mew admitted with tears in her eyes, and to her eternal bliss Ash snorted at her sappy admission. "My word that was the most embarrassing thing I've ever heard," he chuckled, obviously tired and his body crackling with static electricity as she touched him, but otherwise perfectly okay as she playfully swatted him on the arm for being such a prat.

'_I'm glad you're not dead Ash Ketchum, but don't you ever scare me like that again or so help me you'll never hear the end of it_,' she said in a very mothering tone, but Ash could see the laugher and huge relief in her eyes which were the lightest shade of blue he had ever seen. In his opinion she'd never looked so beautiful before, and that was saying something in his opinion. "Yeah me to, honestly Mew I wasn't sure I could pull that off, but once again my Mana came through for me. I'm beginning to wonder, if I can use it to protect an entire solar system, absorb infinite amounts of energy, and other crazy shit like what I've done today, then maybe I'm capable of anything. Honestly, that idea is kind of terrifying and amazing to me at the same time, maybe there are no limits to my power," Ash sweat dropped nervously as Mew kneeled beside him in the dirt, not even caring that her knees were covered in mud, only caring that her trainer, her friend, and the one she loved, was alright. Even if he didn't feel the same way she did she could live with that, so long as he was happy, so long as he was okay. If she truly loved him she knew she had to set him free; and if he didn't fly back to her then he was never hers in the first place.

'_So how do you feel Ash_,' she wondered, and Ash snickered in spite of himself, every hair on his body singed and crackling with static electricity. "Like I just put my hand in an infinite megawatt outlet and stayed there for hours, but I'll shake it off, I mean after all it's just my bones, muscles, and organs. No big deal right?" Ash smirked sarcastically, and he and Mew shared a good laugh as things started to die down. Pokemon were starting to come out of their hidey-holes, people all around them and across the world were getting the latest news on the weather forecast and no longer had any reasons to panic, though some of the leading experts on Pokemon were wondering if a Lugia or some other legendary Pokemon was behind this, since a single flap of the deep diving legendary bird's wings could cause a forty day, planet wide storm of unnaturally high power levels, truly an impressive feat and that was at level 100 not level infinity.

She honestly didn't know much about the Ultra-Verse or why it's Creator allowed for Pokemon so bloody strong to exist in its Multi-Verse, but the fact that any trainer could train any Pokemon to possess world-breaking strength was something Mew found a little bit unnerving. Even with the Pokemon League placing restrictions on Pokeballs and monitoring every trainer, there were always risks involved in partaking in Pokemon battles between two high level trainers, even trainers like Ash with all of his powers had to be extremely careful when he and his Pokemon got caught up in the heat of battle, something she herself was guilty of as well.

Mew loved battling, or rather she loved the idea of battling on Ash's behalf, she had done so plenty of times prior to joining his team, facing off against the powers of her various fellow legends and even beating back the abstract entities of death who tried to reap her trainer's soul upon realizing he was near death. That being said, she had yet to partake in an actual Pokemon battle with him instructing her on what to do, what moves to use, and coming up with strategies and applications for her powers she had never thought of before. She had shared a brief battle with him and that Mega Mewtwo of his in its Mega Z form, its third and final mega evolved transformation that Ash had just discovered. Sufficed to say, it's aggressive, no nonsense battling style coupled with the fact that in its Z form it had the same omnipotent powers and infinite move pool and versatility as Mew herself enabled it to quickly overwhelm her, letting Ash capture her during his two month interval between his Unova and Kalos journeys.

Since joining him Mew had become one of the constants on Ash's growing roster, along with Pikachu and pretty much every one of his legendary Pokemon. Due to his paranoia Ash felt he could keep his rare and powerful Pokemon safe if they were kept by his side at all times, something for which Mew couldn't blame him for given all of the trainers she had scanned with her all-powerful mind, some of whom would go to just about any lengths or stoop to any depths to capture legends like her. She had also formed a really tight friendship with Ash's Mewtwo, who he had captured in the Decolore Islands after that incident with the Genesect. Apparently she had been fascinated by the fact that Ash had seen one of her kind before and quickly insisted on grilling all the details out of Ash, who refused to answer her at first for the fun of it. This quickly became a game of cat and mouse all across the islands, with Mewtwo following him and observing his actions from a distance, evidently curious about the trainer.

From what Mew had seen, Mewtwo had gradually opened her heart to the trainer while following him and watching him kick ass. Mew herself was the first of her kind and the mother of all existence, literally every physiology in the Omega Omnisphere was bonded within her individual cells and nobody knew DNA and genetics like she did, so it surprised her when she happened upon an incipient species of Pokemon that while, not a perfect copy of her species, shared exactly the same genes as Mew herself. The major difference was that all of Mew's genetic composition was active and in use, enabling her to control her own existence and shape shift on an infinite level, but Mewtwo could not do so quite as easily, and due to having certain parts of the Mew Genome dormant or recombined, (a genome that Mew had dubbed as such which contained the genetic composition of all Pokemon and all life in totality) lacked the same versatility as her original yet somehow retained a perfectly stable body, physical composition, and was in all sense and purposes a legendary Pokemon entirely on her own. The highly pronounced human genome and the certain parts of the Mew genome that were equally enhanced made Mewtwo highly unique in Pokemon terms, yet thanks to mega evolution it had the ability to become genetically identical to Mew while retaining her serious and oftentimes aggressive demeanor. She became as powerful, omnipotent, and infinitely versatile as the Pokemon she was cloned from, but only when she had opened her heart to Ash completely and had been endowed with a truly compassionate heart, and only in her Z mega form, a form that was thus far exclusive to the Ultra-Verse.

Quickly remembering that her trainer was kneeling on the ground with his body giving off a static electric charge, Mew giggled as she realized Ash was going to be okay after all, and once he had taken a nice long nap, he'd be good as new. There was just one thing that was nagging at her now, the girl that Arceus she sensed had met, the same Arceus that she and Ash sensed was intercepting lightning bolts and absorbing them during the storm, was now speaking with a girl who's aura and spiritual powers were as absolute as Ash's himself were.

For some reason, Ash didn't seem aware of this girl's presence and Mew was tempted to point it out to him, but remembered her duties as his guardian angel assigned to him by the Original Arceus of the universe, and something told her that this girl was somebody he was meant to be unaware of for the moment, until he met her in person. Whoever she was, Mew could sense love for Ash practically oozing out of her, no doubt she was coming their way to find Ash and tell him how she felt, and as much as she hated to accept it, Mew knew she had to let this girl find her trainer, for their spiritual energies were now resonating, just like two soul mates would. Without any doubt, Mew knew this girl was Serena Yvonne, and she was far, far too close for the blue cat-like Pokemon's comfort.

Tapping him on the shoulder, Mew lurched back when Ash jumped with a start, evidently forgetting she was there and visibly relaxing when he met her gaze. "Sorry, I guess I'm just kind of tired, hey Lucario, how's it coming?" Ash wondered, his attention split between apologizing to Mew and receiving an update from his mega evolved Pokemon about its progress in returning every human and Pokemon to where they had been standing prior to getting swept up in the storm. Mew looked around her at the devastation caused by the storm, pity swelling up in her like a cancerous tumor as she realized the entirety of Route 4 had been overturned, uprooted, and unearthed all at once. She was just about to use her vast, godlike powers to return the forest to its former glory when the Arceus she was sensing beat her to it, the very same Arceus from the Jewel of Life incident that she had given a copy of the Omni-Plate to upon taking on its Ascension Form at the request of the Original One.

Ash, Mega Lucario, and Mew watched in wonder as the strange green glow reversed all the damage done to the forest and Route 4 all around them, the green light allowing the earth to swallow all the dead plants and trees and grow them back from the ground up, Oak and Oran berry trees growing to their adult sizes in seconds, growing back in all of their designated spots and no detail of what the forest looked like before or the trees exact positioning forgotten. The uneven ground and the craters punched into the earth evening out as soil shifted underneath them like quicksand and filled in all the spots that were holey, in exactly the quantity and quality displayed by the Route before all the destruction. Grass and flowers grew back and went into full bloom, Pokemon were returned to their homes via a combination of Ash's Lucario's powers as well as Arceus, all the while trainers and their Pokemon were set down feet first on a perfectly restored Route 4 with all the details, scenery, and everything about it being identical to what it was before.

Mew looked on in amazement as Ash whistled with appreciation and Lucario reverted back to its normal form, no longer needing to call upon its limitless spiritual powers in its mega form and sending out a pulse of aura to ensure there had been no loss of life via detection of possible dead bodies, and when its pulse came back negative it turned to Ash with a smile on its face. '_It is done master, Clement and Bonnie should be rejoining us shortly_,' Lucario spoke through the power of aura, and Ash nodded as all his tension seemed to vanish in that instant, visibly more relaxed and relieved as he turned to Mew with an apologetic look, the legendary Pokemon knowing what he was going to ask even before he did.

"I'm really sorry Mew, but I can't let Bonnie and Clement see you, not yet at least," Ash murmured guiltily, but he was taken aback when Mew giggled and pecked his cheek in affection, making him rear back in embarrassment, his face burning as red as a fire truck. '_It's okay Ash, I understand, but you owe me one okay_?!' Mew giggled as she vanished in a flash of white light, returning herself to her master ball of her own accord, and just in time to, because Ash heard a voice calling his name as he hastily stuffed his master ball inside his trench coat. "Ash, where are you?!" he heard Bonnie shout, and he couldn't remember the last time he had been this overjoyed to hear her voice as he heard Clement breathlessly tell Bonnie not to shout like that as both siblings came into view and Ash waved them over.

"There he is, thank God he is okay!" Bonnie exclaimed in obvious relief as she rushed over to Ash, who stood waiting for her with open arms, Clement huffing and puffing behind her at a much more leisurely pace, shaking his head and rolling his eyes at Bonnie's overenthusiastic nature. Ash braced himself as Bonnie flying glomped him in a monstrous hug that could choke an Ursurang, tears streaming down her face as Ash held her up off the ground, a warmth flowing through him as she wrapped her legs around his waist for support, never wanting to let him go again as she smiled up at him, so happy to see him that she was crying literal tears of joy.

"_I was so worried about you_,' she sniffed emphatically, and Ash smiled as he decided it was time to introduce Lucario to everyone, already having a plan in place on how he was going to explain the situation to the Lumiose city sibling duo. "Well I wasn't worried about you guys at all, I trust you both have a ton of questions for me, and now that we have time I think you both more than deserve an explanation," Ash murmured just as Clement reached them, and as he suspected the teenager's eyes were brimming with questions.

Before he could say anything however, Bonnie beat him to it and tightened her hold on Ash, slinking her arms around his neck as she smiled up at him, "I don't care how you did what you did Ash, and I don't want to know, all I care about right now is that we're all safe. Whatever you're hiding from us you can tell us when you're ready, on your terms not on ours," Bonnie reassured him adoringly, shooting Clement a death glare that said '_if you say anything I'll personally make your life a living hell_,' effectively shutting him up as Ash put Bonnie down, earning a pout from the girl when she realized how comfortably she fit in Ash's strong, protective arms. She also quickly noticed how safe she felt when she was enveloping him in her hardest possible embrace, knowing that unlike her out of shape brother Ash could handle it.

"Anyways you guys, I want you to meet my Lucario, one of my strongest Pokemon," Ash introduced, indicating the dog-like aura Pokemon behind him as Bonnie gushed at the sight of it and Clement said a quick and formal hello. '_Greetings Clement and Bonnie, Ash has spoken very highly you two,_' Lucario greeted telepathically, causing both Clement and Bonnie to bolt in shock. "He can talk?!" Bonnie asked, amazed as Clement snapped his fingers in realization. "Of course, you can use telepathy, it's a rare ability that some psychic Pokemon can use, though I've heard that some legendary Pokemon can as well," Clement commented, ever the smart one as Bonnie nodded in understanding and Ash in confirmation.

Another realization struck Clement as he gazed at Ash, a knowing look in his eyes. "I'm guessing you let us get swept up in the storm so you could release Lucario, who then used its aura manipulation to keep everything and everyone, ourselves included, from getting blown to bits, am I right?" Clement deduced, and Ash smiled at the easy way out his friend was offering him, nodding his head even if it was only part of the truth. Bonnie however, was confused by something, "but that still doesn't explain how you possessed the strength to keep all three of us on the ground despite the winds, you hadn't released Lucario yet so I'm not sure how you did that, but like I said, I don't really care right now," she giggled as Ash sweat dropped upon seeing Clement's inquiring gaze, having evidently forgotten about that.

"Honestly Bon-Bon, I had nothing to do with a lot of what went down during this storm, I don't know how I was able to keep the three of us grounded, but I do know that there are Pokemon out there who are even more powerful than mine are, including my mega evolved Lucario," Ash admitted modestly, and both siblings blanched when he rolled up the sleeve on his trench coat, revealing his mega bracelet from the Hoenn region which they immediately recognized. "Hey that's one of those key stones for mega evolving Pokemon, professor Sycamore mentioned it when we visited him during the incident with Team Rocket and Froakie and I noticed how you shifted uncomfortably in your seat when professor Sycamore brought up his field of study. Hang on, you said that you didn't know all that much about mega evolution when he asked you about it, yet you can mega evolve Pokemon yourself, why lie about something like that?" Clement questioned, not really holding it against Ash for keeping secrets, especially since he and Bonnie were keeping a pretty big one themselves, but curious about why Ash would hide something like that.

Said Pallet town trainer was scratching the back of his head sheepishly as he sensed Charizard closing in on their position, Pikachu and Dedenne having long since recovered and fully conscious as his fire type took to the skies one again and was currently en route to join them. "Honestly guys, that actually wasn't one of the things I was trying to keep secret. I legitimately just wanted to surprise you all when I unveiled my ability to mega evolve in a really shocking manner, but I guess the surprise is already spoiled," he admitted, and he was glad to know that he was actually telling the truth this time. He hadn't meant to lie to them, at least not about this, he just wanted to spring the surprise on them when they least expected it, oh well, at least it was one less thing he had to explain to them now.

Bonnie could tell from Ash's expression that he was being truthful in his admission, as did Clement because he simply smiled and proceeded to offer Lucario a hearty handshake, the aura Pokemon taking it with cheer while Bonnie briefly wondered how it learned to talk, though right now she had more pressing questions. If Ash wasn't responsible for grounding them during the storm, and she wasn't sure that he was or even could be, then who or what had kept them from being swept up like dust Buneary's?

"So, I take it your Lucario also isn't responsible for restoring the forest to its former state," Bonnie giggled jokingly, seriously doubting they had that kind of power but stopping when Ash and Lucario exchanged a look. "Actually, healing entire ecosystems is easily in my Lucario's range of powers; especially in its mega form with an all-powerful Heal Pulse attack. Also, upon mega evolving Lucario becomes a living embodiment of unlimited aura and many other and even rarer spiritual powers, including Mana and Chi, both of which actually have no known human users in the long history of Sinnoh's Aura guardians," Ash explained to a shell shocked Bonnie and Clement, both of whom stared at his amazing Pokemon in an entirely new light. "I'll be honest with you guys though, the forest was being healed while my Lucario was siphoning the excess electrical energy and draining the storm of its power. We actually had nothing to do with the forest regaining its vitality, and that is the honest to goodness truth," Ash said sincerely, and Bonnie nodded while Clement gave him a thumb up. He knew giving his Lucario all the credit was somewhat of a white lie, because while he wasn't being completely forthcoming with how he contributed to stopping the storm, he knew there were worse lies he could have told than letting his trusty mega evolved Lucario receive credit he was already partially due anyways.

"Even still, you and Lucario managed to work together and even somehow dispelled the storm cloud, it would not be an exaggeration to say that you probably saved a lot of lives Ash, and you too of course Lucario. So on behalf of all of Kalos, I'd just like to say thank you guys," Clement smiled with pure gratitude, reminded once again of why Ash was such an incredible trainer and why his bravery was an inspiration to the Lumiose city gym leader. Ash blushed profusely upon receiving such praise, and Bonnie giggled once again when she realized that despite saving Kalos not just once during the Garchomp incident, but twice now, he still retained his humility and was still uncomfortable with being praised for his great work.

She would never admit this out loud, for fear of making things awkward between them, but Bonnie sometimes wished she was at least eight years older, because her admiration of Ash and her crush on him only grew as she was reminded again by how brave he was. He wasn't perfect by any means, and Arceus knew he had a lot of issues and closely guarded secrets, but she knew that any girl would be one of the luckiest girls alive if they somehow managed to win his heart. She knew there was no chance for her to be that lucky girl, the age gap alone would see to that, but as someone who saw Ash like a big brother, Bonnie was adamant at helping find somebody wonderful for him to spend the rest of his life with. She liked to think she was a pretty good matchmaker, and maybe the time had come to look after someone else's romantic interests aside from Clement's, maybe she could find a keeper for Ash to.

There was just one key difference though; Clement needed someone to look after him in nearly every aspect of his life, physically, emotionally, yes, even mentally, because as smart as he was with books and with factual knowledge he had a lot to learn about social awareness and understanding. Ash though, was fully capable of looking after himself physically and mentally, easily possessing the strength, stamina, and street smarts to get himself out of tight spots, on top of that he was far from being socially awkward. So literally the only thing that needed looking after in his case was his heart, which was actually going to be hard for her to find the right girl for the job.

Unlike with Clement's case, Bonnie sensed she would have to be extra careful, attentive, and a good judge of character when setting Ash up with someone, because they had to be capable of making him happy forever and he seemed like the kind of guy who would fight against love tooth and nail, his reaction to her and Clement's offer to travel with him indicative of his reticence to accept human companions into his life whilst travelling the world. He deserved nothing but the best girl in her opinion, and as his unofficial little sister, she was hell bent on making it happen, but until it did she'd have to look after him for a little while, maybe help ease him into a position where he'd be comfortable with the idea of looking for a date. Clement wouldn't be as hard to find a date for since his standards weren't as narrow and he himself was only half-heartedly set against her efforts. Ash on the other hand, would require a little more subtlety and tender loving care on Bonnie's part if she was going to set him up with a real keeper, because in her honest opinion love with a very beautiful thing, and everybody, especially a lonely soul like Ash, was meant to be loved.

"I appreciate that Clement, now what do you guys say we head back to Santalune city once Charizard locates us, I could really use a nap before I challenge the Santalune city gym leader," Ash suggested with a blush from the inventor's praise, and they both agreed as a loud '_Pikachu Pi_,' echoed from a distance, alerting all three humans and Lucario to the presence of Ash's Pikachu and Charizard. Ash's Kanto starter flew with him and Dedenne on his back as he was silhouetted by the sun itself, his form overshadowing the blazing ball of fire that slowly evaporated the collection of rainwater that once flash flooded the entire ruin of the forest.

"Hey, Pikachu, Charizard, Dedenne, over here guys," Ash called out in relief, waving down his draconian Pokemon as the fire and flying type greeted him in the usual fashion, a stream of fire right to the face that made Ash feel as if he were being slowly broiled over a fire, but as soon as the heat came it stopped as his level infinity fire type landed in front of them and Pikachu scurried off his back and jumped into Ash's waiting arms, Dedenne taking this opportunity to cautiously approach Bonnie as it noticed she was holding a berry out for it to eat.

"It's okay Dedenne, everything is alright now, Ash and his Lucario managed to save the day," Bonnie cooed in delight as Dedenne got right up close and personal with the berry in her outstretched palm, sniffing tentatively before taking a bite, then sighing in content as it hurriedly ate the rest and cooed with a happy '_ne ne_.' Ash took this opportunity to thank Charizard for all its hard work, "you did absolutely incredible buddy, when we get back to civilization I'm ordering us all some meat lovers Pizza delivery straight to our room in the Pokemon center, my treat okay guys? Also, Bonnie and Clement, you're most welcome to gorge with us tonight as well, because quite frankly I think I've reached my daily quota of excitement for today," Ash admitted, looking around him at the newly healed forest as he returned Charizard for the time being but let Lucario walk with them when it became clear the Aura Pokemon wished to stay out for a little bit longer, taking the opportunity to answer Bonnie's many questions as she asked more about the nature of aura.

Ash smiled fondly watching the exchange as Clement stayed behind with him at the back of their group, wondering to himself what else Ash was hiding. He could count on his fingers the number of times he'd seen Ash in a battle, but clearly he hadn't properly gauged just how powerful the Pokemon trainer was, and wondered just what exactly his Pokemon's limits were. He could see Pikachu looking at Ash sheepishly and with what almost appeared to be remorse, while the two of them seemed to share some kind of silent communication that evidenced a connection beyond the physical realm, and as Clement stared at Ash and his starter in wonder he began to question what really happened during Pikachu and Dedenne's disappearance, and how such a powerful storm could crop up so fast?

The casual way he explained his Lucario's ability to heal entire ecosystems, coupled with his explanations of Lucario absorbing the storm's energy, all seemed to add up a little too well and yet Ash dodged Bonnie's question when she asked him how he was able to keep them grounded, saying he didn't actually know himself, which Clement could sense was a lie. He considered asking the Pallet town trainer if he knew how the storm had been started, but looking at the battered and bruised Pikachu on his shoulder allowed Clement to hazard a very farfetched, and yet highly plausible guess. Evidently upon disappearing Pikachu and Dedenne had been attacked, by who or what he didn't know, but clearly it was strong enough to push Pikachu to the brink of its abilities and force it to go all out. That thunderbolt that light up the sky just prior to the storm engulfing the planet was no doubt an all-powerful electric charge of Pikachu's own design, and that much energy being thrown into the sky in turn seeded a storm cloud of otherworldly proportions.

It seemed absurd when one looked at Pikachu, wondering how in the world it could possess so much power for such a small creature, yet Clement knew enough about Pokemon to know that they were creatures of limitless potential, and even the smallest Pidgy could become an almighty example of its species, with the right trainer who created the right conditions and the right training regimens, not to mention if the Pidgy had an infinite IV spread and was infinitely naturally powerful amongst its own species, then that would make training it to a level of infinity almost effortless by comparison to anything else. With all that information however, one could see a creature like Pikachu in an entirely new light, and Clement knew full well just how dangerous and powerful high level electric type Pokemon could be, since he was an electric type specialist himself.

Looking at his sister as they lounged around the forest with Dedenne at her heels, Clement was momentarily distracted from his musings over the enigma of Ash and his Pokemon, and curiosity gave way to a genius idea, even for him. "Hey Bonnie, I've got a proposition for you," Clement called out, getting Ash and Pikachu's attention as well as Lucario while Bonnie spun around on her heels and glanced up at her brother, Dedenne perking its ears with piqued curiosity.

"And what is that?" Bonnie asked curiously, her ever curious nature a boon in situations like this as she wondered what Clement could possibly have to offer her, and what he would ask for in exchange, knowing that a proposition was usually a two-way street. Clement got down on one knee before her and down to her eye level, Ash, Pikachu, Lucario, and Dedenne all watching the exchange with interest as Clement finally found his voice. "I was hoping I would be able to capture Dedenne, because an electric type is always a welcome addition to my team, but you see, I find myself with a conundrum. I know how badly you want to start your Pokemon journey, and you've been traveling with me and Ash for over a week now with no real experience in the field of Pokemon training, yet you're already 8 and a half years old. You'll be the legal age of 10 to begin your journey all on your own soon, which is why I want you to gain experience by looking after Dedenne in the event that I am able to befriend it.

So, I'll be Dedenne's official trainer, but you'll be responsible for him; feeding him, giving him water, a warm place to sleep at night, and even experience to gain in battles so he can grow stronger and maybe protect you a little in return should you wind up in danger. We both can get stronger from traveling with Ash, that's true, but I also feel like you'd find your own kind of strength if you take a Pokemon under your wing right now, so what do you say? I think you are sufficiently mature to handle a Pokemon, and maybe even train it to the immense level 100s I've seen Ash pull out of his ass today, no offense Ash," Clement smirked, casting a wry glance at Ash who grinned broadly.

"None taken," he chuckled, Pikachu and Lucario watching the exchange with feral grins of their own. Bonnie took a moment to process what she had just been offered, and by her own brother no less, wondering if this was a dream or if she was simply just this lucky to have an older brother like Clement. Dedenne was smiling at the fond exchange between brother and sister as Bonnie glomped him, murmuring a sweet chorus of 'thank you' over and over again as Clement chuckled and gazed down at Dedenne. "So what do you think about that plan Dedenne, I know you've bonded with my sister, and should you wish to continue your life of freedom in the wild I will not try to stop you, but I think you could benefit greatly from striking a friendship with Bonnie don't you," Clement reasoned out logically, knowing from experience that he was quite possibly talking to an intellectual peer and that Pokemon were often as smart as people, if not even smarter. This fact was first brought to light for the inventor when he saw Ash talking with Pikachu soon after meeting them, discussing things such as Pokemon League conspiracies to limit the powers of inexperienced Pokemon trainers and their Pokemon and seeming completely unsurprised when Pikachu understood him perfectly.

'_Ne ne, Dedenne,_' it cried out happily, nodding at Clement briskly as the inventor smiled warmly and produced an empty Pokeball from his backpack. "Alright then, please bare with me and Bonnie from now on then Dedenne, Pokeball activate," Clement replied gratefully, as he pressed the Pokeball against Dedenne's tiny form and watched it open and dematerialize the hamster-like creature in a flash of red. The Pokeball didn't even shake once and Dedenne didn't put up any sort of resistance, instead there was a gentle 'ping' to indicate a successful capture.

"Alright, Dedenne come on out my new friend," Clement smiled as he released Dedenne and Bonnie scooped him up in pure enthusiasm. "Oh Dedenne you're so cute," Bonnie gushed lovingly as she began nuzzling Dedenne's cheeks, not noticing that the Pokemon was beginning to spark them up with electrical energy reflexively. "Ugh Bonnie, I wouldn't do that if I were..." Ash started, but he was too late as Dedenne released the famed nuzzle attack on its trainer, watching as Bonnie fell down, paralyzed from the attack as Clement rushed over to check on her.

"Bonnie, are you alright, you're not hurt are you?!" Clement questioned with pure concern, while Ash merely chuckled and Dedenne sweat dropped guiltily. "Ugh, so that was Dedenne's nuzzle attack, don't worry Clement, I'm fine," Bonnie chuckled dazedly, still somewhat in a stupor as she sat up, her hair sticking out on all ends from the static electricity as Dedenne looked up at her apologetically. "It's okay Dedenne, I know you didn't mean to, it was just an accident, a reflex right?" Bonnie giggled, flashing a kind smile at the Pokemon as Dedenne nodded and jumped right back up on her shoulders much in the same way Pikachu remained on Ash's.

'_See anything familiar?_' Pikachu chortled reminiscently as Ash smiled, remembering all the times Pikachu used to shock him to wake him up, back in the days when he could sleep in without a care in the world, now though, he'd be lucky to sleep past 5 AM. "Say Dedenne, how would you like to stay in here?" Bonnie suggested as she held her satchel open, waiting for Dedenne to take the initiative as it climbed inside and closed the flap over top of it, squealing out in pleasure as everyone present realized it liked the new spot and found it extremely comfortable.

'_All's well that ends well, right master_,' Lucario stated as Ash nodded, the three of them along with Clement and Bonnie heading back the way they came to Santalune city, ready for his hopefully restful nap and hoping that he wouldn't be having more nightmares, Clement's newest capture fresh on his mind as he contemplated the idea of using his own Dex Nav Plus to locate a Dedenne of his own, one with an infinite IV spread like Froakie and Fletchling both somehow had, along with their hidden abilities.

'_Anyways master, there is something I've been meaning to ask you about, something that occurred to me during the battle with the storm, something I wonder why you didn't think of yourself?_' Lucario continued, as Ash quirked an eyebrow at that statement, wondering what the aura dog could be talking about. 'And what might that be I wonder,' Ash said telepathically, not wanting Clement or Bonnie to hear what he or Lucario were talking about. Lucario sighed before answering, knowing that Ash was going to be kicking himself for not thinking of this solution to the storm's power and ferocity. Finally, he just decided to be blunt and give it to Ash perfectly straight, knowing his trainer to be one of calm and cool collectedness. '_The effects of your Rayquaza's air lock ability, they are absolute due to him being level infinity am I correct, so why not use him when you were stopping the storm_?' Lucario finally managed to say, and Ash stopped dead in his tracks, his mind reeling, his disbelief at his own stupidity threatening to make him keel over and die. He flushed about 50 shades of red over his whole body, feeling very hot and embarrassed by this. "Son of a bitch!" he shouted to the heavens, cursing them and himself for his stupid blunder...

_Author's Note: OMG, I'm finally done this monster of a chapter. Honestly, I thought about continuing on to including Team Flare's debut as well as Ash and Serena's reunion, but I honestly don't think I have enough room in this chapter to really make it any bigger. No doubt some of you will have tons of questions for me after reading this chapter, so let me just take a moment to address some of them._

_# 1: Yes Ash kissed a Pokemon, yes Ash condones the idea of Pokephilea, and though his legendary Mew does have deep feelings for him in this story, nothing will really come of it, so it is mostly just a ship tease... in this story anyways, duh, duh, duh, lol. I'm not changing that scene because I think it was done well and yet still accurately portrayed Ash's feelings for Serena. He knows about their spirits resonating in the form of a soul bond, but has gotten it into his head that happiness is an elusive creature he isn't meant to truly have. Also, he doesn't want her to have any part in the craziness of his life and his ongoing journey, though I promise you all this is indeed an Amourshipping Soul bond fic and that Ash is gonna be developing hugely as a character as the story progresses._

_#2: Serena's surprise meeting with the Arceus from the jewel of life incident and its willingness to give her a chance to battle it for the right to capture it. I know it may seem like Arceus is being rather generous but the truth is it is being anything but. To capture a Pokemon of such an enormous godlike caliber is gonna put Serena and her Pokemon through the ringer, and push them to the brink of their abilities and beyond. They are going to go to hell and back during the six month period leading to their eventual capture of Arceus, and not just Serena, but Ash, Clement, and Bonnie as well. They're all going to receive massive character development, and trust me when I say Ash's secrecy will become much more of a strain on his relationships with them than in the original version of this story._

_#3: If you guys have any other questions for me feel free to leave a review, but just keep in mind that I don't respond to flames or any critical reviews with nothing nice to say. Don't like it, don't read it, simple as that, I couldn't care less what people like that think and I'm not about to start now. Anyways peeps, as always, read, rate, and review. PokeLoverTJC is signing off now._


	3. Chapter 3

_Disclaimer: As usual I do not own Pokemon, believe me if I did Amourshipping would already be canon and confirmed lol._

Chapter Three: The Rise of Team Flare and the Siege of Santalune City

A far wiser man than Ash once said there was a significant gap between having powers and having precision. This wisdom was of course his own and yet not completely his alone; the confusing part about it was the person who had told him this was another Ash, another version of himself from another dimension which is how Ash first came across the term Omega Omnisphere and learned of the omni-dimensional continuum; not to mention a whole sleuth of other epic ass shit his doppelganger had disclosed to him during their brief encounter back during Ash's own journey through Sinnoh. This other Ash had explained to him about his positioning in the UV's Pokemon Multi-Verse and how he was the tenth incarnation of himself, ten times removed from the prime world and other shit Ash just didn't understand coming out of his doppelganger's maddeningly smart mouth.

His doppelganger had referred to himself as Ash Ketchum 9 by 6, a name given to him by an old ally of his to indicate that he was from a universe over 999 thousand times removed from the prime world or whatever the heck it was called. Ash's head still whirled even today just thinking about it; his doppelganger was so much smarter and more in tune with everything in totality than he was it wasn't even funny, and while Ash was still learning the basics of Aura and Mana and other examples of omni-shit his doppelganger had already become a master wielder of psycho-omnipotence as he liked to call it, which was basically a fancy way of saying unlimited powers of the mind, and that was just one of his many, potentially omnipotent abilities that made everything Ash could do obsolete.

In truth Ash hadn't thought about this cross-dimensional encounter for years. And the only reason he was indulging himself in this particularly sucktastic memory was because something his 9 by 6 counterpart said to him really struck a chord, thus reminding him of the irrefutable truth that he still had such a long way to go if he was ever going to succeed at his ultimate goals on the same scale his more powerful omni-dimensional selves were all but completely accustomed to. He had told Ash that there was a difference between having powers and having precision, that living was not for the weak, and even gave him his famous line about crucibles. By far the most memorable thing from their encounter however, was that his doppelganger was walking a similar path as him and was connected to all the negative energy and emotions in the Omega Omnisphere. He saw more darkness every nanosecond than any mortal man ever would in a lifetime and he didn't even seem all that bothered by it, in fact it seemed like he was embracing the darkness and the negativity and when Ash questioned him on it, he had this to say.

'_I embrace the darkness and the pain because I learned how to; you're battling with some inner demons of your own to am I right? You have that killer instinct as well, the ability to go to extremes to deal with people who deal in extremes themselves. Don't fight the darkness within you Ash, just let it run its course, because sometimes the only way out of something is to go straight through it_,' his 9 by 6 incarnation had sagely said with all the knowledge and wisdom of this Omega Omnisphere he talked about brimming in his metallic, impossibly golden eyes.

So why was Ash, or as he called in the UV's numbering system, Ash Ketchum # 10 looking back on all this? The answer was obvious if one really thought about it, he was busy berating himself for his lack of precision when dispelling the storm only a couple of hours ago. Now safe in Santalune City's Pokemon Center with Clemont and Bonnie about to order some dinner; Ash had a lot of spare time to address his own shortcomings and stupidity where his handling of Pikachu's all-powerful, world breaking storm was concerned.

How the hell had he not thought about Rayquaza right off the bat? There was nobody around for miles to witness his usage of a legendary Pokemon and Rayquaza's all-powerful air lock ability, or as his doppelganger called it, omni-weather negation, this storm could have been over before it even began. Was he really this stupid not to have thought about it, or was he so afraid of exposing his secret arsenal to the world as Ash Ketchum that he just came up with every possible excuse to trap his legends within their master balls for all eternity? Had he really turned into such a paranoid and distrusting person where his Mew and other godlike level infinity Pokemon were concerned, did he really prioritize their safety over their freedom so much that he was effectively trapping them against their will in the same manner anyone else would were they to get their hands on Ash's well concealed master balls?

He decided right then and there that he would be a lot more lenient where his legendary Pokemon were concerned from here on out; he ultimately knew that even if anybody was bold or brave enough to steal these Pokemon from his person when he was moonlighting as the Aura Phoenix, he'd have no trouble using his powers to track the culprit down and execute them before they could properly use the Pokemon as weapons. Arceus knew Ash was capable of killing when it was truly necessary, he had done it with the Shadow Triad and with Ghetsis, all of whom were truly horrible excuses for human beings and the leaders of Team Plasma. Using his powers as the Aura Phoenix had allowed Ash to effectively execute these men especially when Ghetsis was threatening to flash freeze the entire world using Kyurem's power against his will. Lucky for all of them Ghetsis had not known about the legends surrounding the Original Dragon of Unova or they were all doomed. Kyurem wasn't just the empty husk leftover from the original Unovan Dragon he _was_ the original dragon. In his black and white forms he was considered one of the most powerful dragon type Pokemon in existence, but in his mythical unlimited form, he made Mega Rayquaza look like a Caterpie by comparison. He was omnipotent in that form along with possessing an infinite arsenal of super powers and the same infinite versatility as Mew herself prized in the move pool department.

His brief meeting with his doppelganger had taught him so much and had even helped him better understand the hidden subtleties of the various major legendary Pokemon of each region. He even knew about Primal Xerneas and Primal Yveltal, though his doppelganger didn't know any better than he did how those two lost their primal powers let alone how to get them back, proving that even Ash 9 by 6's knowledge of Ultra-Verse Pokemon was impressive but still incomplete. But if someone as vast and as powerful as his doppelganger, who many believed was a champion of the Omega Omnisphere itself, was not the absolute pinnacle of knowledge and power than who was? The answer to that question was terrifying to contemplate, but Ash knew he'd drive himself batty if he kept imagining bigger and better versions of himself or any other Pokemon master across the totality of existence. It was intensely disconcerting to know that no matter how seemingly limitless one's imagination was there was always going to be something greater than even they could comprehend, something so absurdly and ridiculously powerful and impossible that it just... defied any and all explanations.

Thanks to their meeting though Ash knew about Kyurem being the unlimited original dragon of Unova and the first of his species in each universe decreed that all UV versions of Kyurem shall only be able to access their omnipotent 'unlimited forms' upon reaching a level of infinity. And thus it was so and this rule of sorts had apparently become one of the Ultra-Verse's fundamental laws and constants. It was crazily disorienting to think of reality on such a vast scale and to imagine that separate versions of himself, no matter how many times removed, could amass so much knowledge and power just by wanting them, without the slightest effort. Luckily for Ash however, his Kyurem was level infinity _and_ the first of his kind in the 10th Pokemon universe, so even while he kept his secret form's existence a secret from the likes of Ghetsis the legendary dragon god had not hesitated to inform Ash of his boundless inner world, his omnipotent inner god through which he attained absolute power in one almighty form.

Ash also knew about both Mega Charizard Z and Mega Mewtwo Z thanks to his doppelganger once again, though he had yet to have his Charizard or Mewtwo use those forms and frankly Mewtwo had only just bonded with Ash on the level required to access her omnipotent Z mega form. Apparently the form required a trainer whom Mewtwo had opened his or her heart up to completely and who had raised their bond with Mewtwo to the maximum limit, which was essentially limitless. Only when the trust and the bond between Mewtwo and his or her trainer was absolute and eternal, only when they were psychically connected on a quintessential level and could read each other inside and out and knew everything about each other, their deepest and darkest desires or their wildest dreams; only when knowing all that didn't change their bond in the slightest would Mewtwo be able to access the full powers of the Mew genome and become a being of absolute invincibility, totally unbeatable by his or her fundamental nature. Ash and his Mewtwo were connected on such a level, though it had taken the better part of six months for them to get to this point which for Ash was a new personal all time record. Usually it took only about a day or two for him to establish a connection of some kind with any and all of his Pokemon; his Charizard was an exception, being one of the longest ongoing epitomes of insubordination in Ash's past journeys, only opening his heart to his trainer during their escapades in the Orange Islands.

In short a Mewtwo had to trust someone completely, be it their Pokemon trainer or another Pokemon partner to access their legendary Mega Z Form. The strength of family was often sufficient enough to unlock this form; though romantic love such as the kind any Mewtwo would for his or her soul mate worked even better for this, especially if the soul mate in question was a Mew, whom many believed to be the ideal Pokemon mating partner for every species in existence and the ultimate progenitor, primogenitor, and every other kind of genitor.

Soul bonds were far more common and to be expected from mating Pokemon partners, and only after dating and courting and stuff could they decide to whether or not they wanted to be together forever. Then a pair of mating marks would replace the courting marks which would normally disappear after a few days, and the Pokemon couple in question would become partners for life in an unbreakable marriage contract of sorts. Literally every Pokemon of every species throughout the Ultra-Verse was destined to become the mating partner, the soul mate of someone else, be it human or Pokemon; this phenomenon has been in effect since the UV's creation according to Ash's omni-dimensional twin.

He knew that soul bonded couples had everything that existed between them elevated to superhuman and sometimes even absolute, omnipotent levels depending on the pair in question; whether it was their sex drive, sexual pleasure, their connection to the omniversal emotional spectrum and its positive feelings, or ecstasy of any kind, soul mates in the UV were ensured a life filled with the most blissful sensations and an eternity of absolute euphoria and love so long as they remained together. Yet there were some conditions and certain prices they paid to such as being connected to each other on such a deeply quintessential level that they were literally bound by obligate symbiosis and would depend upon each other for their literal survival, or even the elimination of the element of choice and of chance. Knowing that one was destined to fall in love with their alleged _perfect match in life_ could be considered an elimination of free will in some respects, and a lot of people would fight the soul bond tooth and nail, try with all their might to resist it in an effort to keep their options open.

Ash also knew that with his infinite spiritual powers any girl who was able to become bonded to him in this manner would be infused with his connection to both the negative and positive feelings of the Omniversal Emotional Spectrum, yet would be unable to escape his insane life without sacrificing their own in the process. There was a reason soul bonds in the Ultra-Verse were also called unbreakable marriage contracts, because that is literally what they were; breaking the contract or its rules could result in the offending bond mate learning the true meaning of hell. Clearly the Omni-Creator of the UV wanted to ensure that when two people loved each other enough to become literal soul mates that they'd have very damn good reasons not to screw it up by cheating on each other or violate the contract in any other way, shape, or form.

Ash knew allowing his soul mate to bond with him would be the same thing as condemning her to love him or else die a horrible, tragic death; but so long as the contract, the bond between him and Serena remained as it was and not finalized, he could still do what he needed to do and she could live an ordinary life free and unfettered by the difficult life he lead. There was just too much suffering, pain, loss, and negative energy and emotions throughout totality that he was just too intimately aware of in order to condemn someone else to his fate; he knew that if he allowed Serena to fall in love with him and finalize that contract, her life as she knew it would be forever lost and she'd always be a part of his life for better... and the very _worst_. He would be damned to hell if he let her anywhere near his heart or the life he had chosen; which he always knew deep inside could only end one way. Someday his journey was going to end and he was going to challenge someone to a match or make enemies with someone who could not be beaten, who was absolutely invincible and unbeatable by their fundamental nature. There was only one certainty in his future and it was death, the only thing about that which remained a mystery was how he was going to die, or how soon and at whose hands?

Yet despite all this knowledge and power he possessed and despite knowing his life of suffering and pain could only end one way, Ash was far from being suicidal and so long as the path to ultimate championship remained unpaved, he would continue to travel, continue to battle with the most absurdly skilled and strong opponents. He may not have been Ash Ketchum 9 by 6, champion of the Omega Omnisphere, but he was going to do his absolute best to succeed at his ultimate goal even if it lead him on the endless pathway to becoming the top trainer in the Ultra-Verse itself. He knew the omni-temporal continuum of the Ultra-Verse varied from universe to universe, and the present day 10th universe was not the same thing as the present day 9 by 6 universe as Ash 9 by 6 had informed him.

That had actually explained why his doppelganger was several years older than him; because he was further along in his respective journey than Ash himself was, in fact the Ash 9 by 6 he met was from his world's future and was already traveling through time and across the Omniverse to continue his journey to become a champion of totality itself. Such was his mastery of omnipotence and Pokemon battling that when Ash requested a match his doppelganger declined, saying he only accepted matches from the Pokemon league champions of each entire alternate earth at this point and showed Ash his world champion's trophy and the world champion ribbon tied around his Raichu's neck in the form of a collar, confirming that he had already defeated his universe's world champion and probably many others as well.

Ash often questioned why his doppelganger had even bothered with him if he wasn't proficient enough to even consider the applications of his Pokemons' powers like those of his Rayquaza. If he couldn't remember such a simple detail and step his game up, how was he ever going to become anything even remotely comparable to Ash 9 by 6, quite frankly it was embarrassing how easily this whole stupid situation could've been avoided had he thought everything through, gone over every avenue, every possible alternative idea to the half-assed one he himself had concocted.

"Um Ash, you okay?" a small voice asked, effectively derailing his train of thoughts as he became aware of Bonnie and Clemont's questioning gazes upon him. Quickly hastening to stuff his face full of food at their dinner table, which had already gone cold; Ash smiled reassuringly at them as Pikachu sweat dropped at his trainer's antics and Clemont decided to question Ash's strategy for Viola when she returned to her gym.

"So what do you have planned for the gym leader here Ash? I must admit I'm pretty excited to see what you'll come up with given how you went about stopping that storm earlier," Clemont praised him as Ash nearly choked on his food and Bonnie smiled up at him from across the table. The Pokemon Center's cafeteria was open twenty four seven and trainers were allowed to help themselves to the kitchen and bake or cook themselves if and when the official on duty chefs weren't around to do the cooking for them. The Pokemon Centers across the world were free for all trainers, a free smorgasbord, a free room and facilities, and free hospital treatment for humans and Pokemon alike so long as the people coming and going were trainers themselves. The Pokemon Centers received funding from the Pokemon Leagues across the world that were essentially infinite, but having non trainers pay was a good way to inspire them to get off their asses and see the world all around them. Ash still had the same appetite he always did despite everything he's been through, despite thinking himself prepared for anything; yet despite his endlessly ravenous appetite being the one thing about him that didn't change Clemont's question reminded him all the more of what he lacked, what he had given up and sacrificed to get to this point.

"Believe me I was just thinking about what I could have done differently to dispel the storm guys; I mean I get that nobody died and the mess was cleaned up by parties unknown but the mess itself was still just that... messy and I'd like to think I could do a neater job than I did," Ash admitted woefully as both siblings exchanged a dubious look. How could somebody who did so much and who saved the entire world without expecting anything in return be feeling so down in the dumps over not doing a perfectly neat and tidy job? Bonnie herself was confused by this because there was no reason in her young mind for Ash not to be celebrating his triumphs and his victories this day! And to top it all off he was still going to go and challenge the gym leader later on tonight?! There was only so many hours in the day and Ash had done so much for so many without expecting anything at all to praise his hard work; Bonnie could accept all that she supposed, but what she couldn't accept was Ash thinking he wasn't good enough just because the job itself had been a bit messy.

"Ash that's not true, you were amazing and... come to think of it, how exactly did you dispel the storm?" Clemont trailed off, switching from praising Ash to being curious himself about the exact details of how his friend and mentor went about doing the things he did. As a scientist Clemont knew firsthand that there was a basis in science for nearly everything, even the various seemingly supernatural abilities of Pokemon had some basis in logic, and he figured Ash knew that as well as he did and had went about dispelling the storm cloud in a much more scientific manner than most people would believe.

Ash was not opposed to answering Clemont's inquiry as honestly as he could, in fact he was welcoming the distraction from his own feelings of inferiority and incompetence compared to some of his more absurdly powerful and knowledgeable extra-dimensional selves. "Well, I had my mega Lucario manifest his Mana as a conduit to attract unbound atmospheric electrons," he explained somewhat truthfully, leaving out the part where it was him and not Lucario that did this and opting to give his Pokemon all the credit for this rare stroke of scientific brilliance on Ash's part. Ash knew that while he was powerful he was not omniscient, but he did know enough about a lot of different things and fields of knowledge to get by in a pinch.

Bonnie looked like she didn't understand a word of what Ash just said but Clemont almost immediately did. "You mean like a grounding mechanism," he stated matter-of-factually. Ash nodded, "yes but one capable of absorbing the atmosphere's entire natural electrical circuit even if said natural circuit was given an unnaturally strong charge absolutely exceeding any natural phenomena. Think of it like the all-powerful lightning rod ability of a level infinity Rhyperior or even a Mega Sceptile. Oh, remind me Clemont to give professor Oak a call and have him transport my Sceptile over so I can have him on hand if something like this ever happens again," Ash requested suddenly as Clemont nodded without missing a beat and Bonnie giggled excitedly at the thought of what Ash would do in the heat of battle against a gym leader. Opting to try and distract him from his own sense of inferiority, Bonnie spoke up.

"So who are you going to use? Word on the street is that Viola is a bug type specialist, and most first time gyms are standard two on two matches, so what are your options Ash?" She idly wondered, surprising Ash once again with the level of maturity she possessed and just how mature her vocabulary was. Clearly Clemont's little sister had also received the same kind of right stuff from their parents he did because she seemed highly intelligent in her own right, and with a brother like Clemont she could have picked up a thing or two as well he supposed. Ash had an answer to her question already waiting on his tongue and didn't hesitate to give it.

"I plan to use Froakie and Fletchling my two newest team members. I do like having some of my old Pokemon along for the ride but usually Pikachu and Charizard are just there in case everything goes to hell, I don't like using them in gym matches though Bonnie. They're too strong and at too high a level for me to be casually using in a gym match and frankly I like to set certain challenges for myself when I reach a new region. Using my already fully trained Pokemon to curb stomp the competition is not the best way to go about setting limits for myself and sticking to them," Ash admitted honestly and Bonnie nodded with a kind smile while Clemont found himself questioning once again just how powerful the Pallet town trainer was.

"You say that you're setting limits for yourself almost like you don't have any in the first place," Clemont noted observantly, and Ash inwardly cursed his luck for stumbling across someone who could arguably be the smartest of all his traveling companions. "Very perceptive Clemont, as Bruno of the Kanto Elite Four once said, humans and Pokemon can become stronger without limit through rigorous training. The simple fact that anybody could train a Pokemon to have continent busting or even world breaking strength has been the subject of controversy among Pokemon researchers for centuries; Pikachu here has almost reached a level of infinity and half of his main stats are at that level already. Charizard is one of the few Pokemon I have to have truly reached his maximum potential and has become an almighty example of his species, same with my Sceptile and just recently my Infernape.

All Pokemon have within them the same infinite potential, a boundless inner world and the capacity to become all-powerful examples of their respective species, with every one of their natural abilities, including the strength and effects of their attacks, becoming enhanced to supreme, omnipotent levels. So you are right in a way when you say my Pokemon have no real limits in the first place that they can set for themselves, but reaching their infinite potential and how quickly and easily all depends on how naturally attuned to that potential each and every individual of every Pokemon species is, and that value is what competitive battlers nowadays call IVs," Ash lengthily prattled on, as both Bonnie and even Clemont had a hard time processing all of this.

In truth Ash was just rattling off all he had learned from his doppelganger years back, he hadn't really learned any of this for himself until much later and he knew that in UV terms a Pokemon's limitless potential was no different from any others. Deciding he should continue to educate the two of them, who continued to be fascinated by the depths of his knowledge, Ash carried on. "Also, it might interest you to know that level infinity is the only invariant power level that any Pokemon of any species can achieve, just like how moving at infinite velocities is the only means to attaining a truly invariant speed. Let me explain it this way, your Dedenne for instance has 50 thousand speed Bonnie, but that stat value is a variant value ranging anywhere from 50 thousand meters per day to naturally slow Pokemon like Snorlax, to 50 thousand mega parsecs per Planck time for Pokemon like say... Deoxys in its speed form.

Which means that even with only fifty thousand speed and long before it ever reaches level infinity, Deoxys has a speed stat and maximum velocity stretching into the realm of complete absurdity; same rule applies to any and all stat values for any and all Pokemon. Same formula applies to a naturally physically weak Pokemon such as Blissey, who at an attack value of 50 thousand would be lucky to hit with the force of 50 thousand pounds with each attack, whereas attack form Deoxys or Primal Groudon or Mega Rayquaza or Mega Mewtwo X would hit with the force of 50 thousand megatons at the same exact attack stat value, does that make any sense to you now?" Ash hopefully concluded his statement, wondering if he was speaking over their heads in the same obscenely intelligent manner his 9 by 6 doppelganger had done to him, making him feel like an infinitely stupid idiot by comparison. Ironically enough he wasn't even trying to sound like every scientist's dream deliberately he spoke that way naturally and fluently, it was just the kind of absolute intellect he was plain and simple.

Bonnie didn't look like she got it just yet, maybe because she wasn't old enough but Clemont looked absolutely enraptured with every word Ash spoke. "_That is so cool_! so what you're saying is every finite stat value that exists is variant depending on the Pokemon species and their natural power levels compared to other species, whereas infinite is infinite no matter what and is the one true invariant stat level regardless of whatever Pokemon species achieves it," Clemont emphatically asked for confirmation, wanting to be sure he got everything straight as Ash nodded with a relieved smile that there was somebody intelligent enough to understand what he just explained.

God knows the stat calculation system was complicated enough as it was, but each and every Pokemon species could be totally different from one another, even if they had the same speed or the same attack stat value it was truly variant depending upon the species and whatever their natural power levels were. Once they reached level infinity however, natural base powers meant absolute shit and the Pokemon in question reached the invariant speed value and invariant stat value for all of their different abilities, becoming an almighty, supreme paragon of their entire species and eclipsing any and all of their natural power limitations.

"Anyways Ash, you should probably rest and take a nap before your big match with Viola, you did say you were tired after all and besides, you're going to need your strength today," Bonnie suggested with a fond smile while biting into a piece of strawberry cheese cake the waiters from the Pokemon center had brought them for desert. Ash took a moment to consider her suggestion, weighing the pros and cons of taking a nap before the big match and noting with relief that he had at least been able to eat his fill before he took a snooze. Nodding chirpily at her suggestion, Ash proceeded to get up just as the waiter came to clear their table and Bonnie and Clemont decided on what they were going to do while Ash caught some much needed Z's.

As Ash slunk off to his room Bonnie couldn't shake the ill at ease feeling in the pit of her stomach even as she smiled at his retreating form, while Clemont took notice of this and decided to comment on it. "You like him don't you?" he asked so out of the blue that Bonnie nearly choked on her spit with a start. "Well yeah I mean, he's a nice guy and all, I just wish he didn't always look so sad all the time when he thinks we're not looking. He's like having a second big brother to me Clemont and even though we've only known him for a week, he already feels like family to me," Bonnie admitted as Clemont shook his head much to her confusion.

"That's not what I meant; I mean you like him as in you have a crush on him. I've seen the way you look at him," Clemont observed somewhat cryptically as a series of warning bells tolled in Bonnie's mindscape and she flat out denied it. "WHAT, Clemont I don't like him... like _that_, how could you even think..." Bonnie fumed as Clemont held up a hand in placation. "Bonnie its okay; lots of girls your age have crushes early on. A lot of the time these crushes are on older guys and the girl in question may not fully understand that it is not appropriate for a guy of 16 to be courting an 8 year old girl. Ash gets this and from what I can see he only sees you as a little sisterly figure, but you need to understand that nothing can ever come of this crush you have on him; plus to be honest after today I think I finally understand what Ash meant when he was saying that traveling with him could get really dangerous, maybe he doesn't want to find someone special, maybe he doesn't want to endanger them needlessly," Clemont thoughtfully admitted as Bonnie went from blushing like mad from embarrassment to turning red with anger at what Clemont was undoubtedly considering doing.

"You think I don't know that?! I know that Clemont and I'm okay with it, what I'm not okay with however, is you talking about Ash like he's a danger magnet; he didn't ask for this storm to appear or for any of the other crazy stuff that's happened since we started traveling with him. And I'm not going to abandon him now, not when he needs us, even if he won't admit it you know it's true Clemont," Bonnie hissed with a dangerous undertone, discretely conveying to Clemont that leaving Ash now was not an option and that any cowardice on his part would not be taken well by her. Ash needed the two of them more than he would ever willingly admit, and Bonnie would be damned if she let that poor man be alone for another second. She respected his privacy and she respected his need for space; which was part of the reason she suggested he go take a nap, it was because she knew she would be giving him time to mull things over and wouldn't actually get any sleep at all. Right now Ash was his own worst enemy, and she couldn't stomach the thought of what anymore disappointment or absence of human companions would do to the poor young man.

"I didn't say I was going to leave him Bonnie! I merely meant to say that I finally understand what Ash was getting at when we talked to him about us tagging along. And now, I finally understand why we have to stick around; I don't know why his previous friends ever thought he was in a fit state to be traveling on his own with only his Pokemon for company but like you I am not content just leaving him be, and after what happened today, he's going to need all the help he can get. With my scientific skills, inventing capacity, and you going about reminding him of whatever innocence he had as a child among other things, I think the two of us have a lot to contribute to Ash's entourage as it is," Clemont admitted with a level of passion and determination Bonnie had rarely seen in her brother before, but had learned to greatly appreciate nonetheless. Smiling up at him and finishing her dessert, Bonnie proceeded to ask the question about what they did next.

"So um, now that Ash is able to mull things over in peace, what do you say we catch a movie or something at the Santalune theatre? I heard Kalos Champion Diantha has a new epic thriller out and it's supposed to be really good," Bonnie suggested gleefully as Clemont shrugged and nodded with nary a second thought. "Sure, why the heck not, lead the way sis," he smiled fondly as Bonnie squealed with passion and lead him out the door to the Pokemon center and opting to come and check on Ash as soon as it was done.

XXXXX

Ash was grateful to Bonnie for more reasons than one; for starters she was a friendly reminder to the good old days, back when he was a child himself without a care in the world, with big dreams and aspirations and a willingness to reach for the stars. Now though, all the years spent journeying and tapping into his own infinite spiritual energy had not only given him the ability to... touch the stars, but also opened him up to an eternal, endless abundance and supply of negative thoughts and feelings throughout not only the world, but also the entire Omega Omnisphere. Such an endless capacity for hatred, sadness, anger, loss, and pain was more than any mortal man could ever deal with in a lifetime, and even when coupled with an equally infinite over-saturation of love, peace, happiness, euphoria, and other eternally blissful sensations Ash was just barely clinging to any form of sanity.

He was the embodiment of maximum quintessence and spiritual forces throughout the Omega Omnisphere or so his doppelganger had told him. '_Man, why am I thinking about this guy so much all of a sudden? Maybe it's because no matter how great my abilities are I'll never be able to live up to everything he'll go on to do, the boundless wonders and unlimited miracles he'll accomplish. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that my end goal is still not even remotely close to coming to fruition and my father would still kick my ass in a fight. Whatever the reason I have for thinking about Ash 9 by 6, I know it has something to do with the world breaking storm I faced today and how he could probably have thought of the best course of action to deal with it without having to make a giant mess of things and then for good measure, laugh his ass off at my incompetence. Maybe I just don't have what it takes to be the world champion, let alone a champion of the Omega Omnisphere like him?_

_As if he actually legitimately believes that he couldn't live up to such an absurd title, for all his humility he is a better Ash Ketchum than I'll ever be, times infinity. I guess all this boils down to the simple fact that I'm not even at my personal best right now, and given the ever-increasing instability of my powers and the fact that regaining said stability depends upon my soul bond with Serena being finalized or some shit, I'm not sure I'll ever have the ability to succeed at the end goal I set for myself, let alone anything that may or may not come after?_

_Serena I'm sorry but I can't let myself be bonded to you forever, not if it means dragging you into whatever impossible or crazily terrifying phenomena I may end up facing in the future. With the life that I lead, I just think it is best not to get involved with you when you're the one person in all the world that I could grow to truly love above all other things; one thing I've learned is that the more you care the more you have to lose, and Serena if that is true then I'd rather not love you if I could help it. I just wish there was a way for me to undo the soul bond between us but apparently that unbreakable marriage contract is the work of a far greater power than me,_' Ash continually mused as he lie awake in his bed, refusing to let sleep take him as he tossed and turned about on his mattress. Was this how he would spend eternity, cursing the unfairness of it all and comparing his inferior ass self to the likes of greater and stronger versions of himself than any rational or sane mind could fathom?

He didn't want to live his life in the knowledge that he'd always be inferior and his powers invisible on the scale of Ash 9 by 6 or the like, he didn't want to constantly feel like he had to be depressed and alone, to travel the road to attain his ultimate goal, facing dangers and cosmic tier threats totally bereft of human companions, all the while never truly becoming the best like no one ever was in the first place. Could he even truly be considered a Pokemon master if he wasn't number one or a top tier trainer in the entire Omnisphere as a whole? It was one thing to think oneself the best while being completely ignorant of what the true definition of _best_ was, but Ash couldn't even feign ignorance at this point. He knew about the Omega Omnisphere and just how absurd becoming number one in it at anything truly was, yet so long as he lived he supposed he would continue to work tirelessly to achieve this completely insane goal, even if it was all for naught in the end and comprised of fleeting experiences. He almost chuckled aloud at the thought of standing above every other trainer in the Omega Omnisphere as its number one champion and Pokemon Master, unable to even conceive becoming number one at anything on _that_ scale. It was as ludicrous an idea as anything could be, and Ash knew simply becoming the champion of his entire world would have to be enough. Still, it was a nice thought, a nice idea to entertain even if it could never happen.

'_Nothing's impossible Ash,_' his doppelganger would probably remind him at this point. Easy for him to say, he'd done the impossible more times than any man could count and he had abilities that Ash couldn't even dream of. Smiling sadly at the impossible conundrum he found himself faced with, Ash wondered if he would ever be able to stop traveling so long as he knew he wasn't the best, somewhere, in some way, in some other world? Would he ever be able to settle down and even give someone like Dawn or Serena the family and the relationship they deserved, while his journey to become the absolute best at what he did remained totally unfulfilled? He had once been content with just becoming the best in his world, but then that doppelganger of his just had to show up and expand his worldview infinitely beyond his mortal comprehension; truth be told Ash wasn't even sure if his worldview had expanded into something tangible or merely an infinite nothing. Stricken with sudden sleepiness and a psychological need to sleep on the matter and give it some thought in his dreams, Ash's eyelids grew heavy and against his will, he fell upon the pillow beneath him and closed his eyes, quite unprepared for what he would see in the land of his dreams once he got there.

XXXXX

_Psychic and spiritual powers often went hand and hand and possessed a lot of the same applications. Both of them could be used to manipulate various omniversal constructs and even the magic of the Omega Omnisphere itself, either through Ash's own Mana or the something even crazier like Omni-Mystokinesis, or Omni-magical manipulation via telekinetic and psycho-omnipotent influence. Both had the ability to manipulate primordial forms of energy and even control the very essence of omni-creation itself, but the main difference between the two of them, was how they were focused. Psycho-omnipotence required absolute willpower, mental fortitude, and strength of mind whereas infinite spiritual powers required emotional stability, a connection to both the negative and positive sides of the omniversal emotional spectrum, and purity of heart and soul despite that connection. All and all, the two were much the same kind of super power, but they were merely channeled through different outlets so to speak._

_Psycho-omnipotence and infinite spiritual powers often intermingled and could even be used to manipulate certain aspects of each other, and Ash had used his own infinite spiritual force to construct an infinite mindscape and totally impenetrable unconscious mind the likes of which usually only a psycho-omnipotent being could create. As a conduit for all the spiritual and quintessential energy in totality Ash could control the incorporeal aspects of his body and even augment his physical abilities and energy levels to their supreme depth and magnitude, which was to say he could become a god if he so chose._

_Manipulating the omniversal realm of dreams and dream worlds was an easy feat for either super power, and Ash himself had used his abilities to become a completely lucid dreamer who not only could control his own mindscape and realm of dreams on an infinite level but also who could describe his dreams to the outside world while asleep, stimulating his upper brain activity with a bioelectric megahertz level infinitely exceeding anything any normal human brain could produce or safely handle._

_Ash was the perfect example of a lucid dreamer, one who could control his own dreams on an infinite level and become an omnipotent being within it if he so chose; so it came as an enormous surprise to him when this time, a certain element or rather a certain person, appeared in his dreams without his say so. Here he was God, here he was the ruler of his own infinite mindscape and personal totality, so seeing his oldest childhood friend just randomly insinuate herself in the one place where all his wildest dreams and deepest desires were all possible nearly gave him a coronary due to the massive shock value of it all._

_Sensing immediately that this was no ordinary dream invading entity, Ash instantly sealed her in an omni-locked chamber of his own design, and to his astonishment she made no move to stop him, no effort to resist his paranoid state of mind, body, and soul. She simply gazed lovingly at him, with those impossibly cerulean orbs that could've put Reshiram's blue flare to absolute shame. She was still wearing her straw hat and the pink sundress she'd been wearing when last he saw her, but the straw hat was missing the pink ribbon she had entrusted to him and she and the dress itself were at least several sizes larger than she had been at eight years old. She had filled out in all the right places, with flawless curves, double d-cup breasts that May herself would have been envious of, and a skin tight sundress that accentuated her every dip and every part of her bodacious, impossibly attractive figure. Ash couldn't even breathe as he checked her out, wondering how on earth she could have grown up into such a breathtaking vision of loveliness; he'd seen supermodels and movie stars who didn't compare to her._

_She was around his age in this current form, this manifestation of hers he supposed, and she was gazing at him with that same trusting, ever faithful look she would bestow upon him when they were kids, the look that made him feel like he could walk on air and like he would do anything to keep her faith in him intact no matter how misplaced it may have been, so long as it was honest and he was true to himself when he went about keeping her faith. Somewhere along the way between moving away from Pallet town and aging as she appeared here and now in his sleep she had aged almost a decade and now Ash could sense that whatever she had to say was important, knowing a possible omen or a message when he saw one and knowing that this could be either a good or a bad thing._

"_You look... amazing straw hat girl," Ash commented dazedly, like he used to when they were kids and she would wear a two piece swimsuit during their daily swims together in the oceans between Pallet town and Cinnabar Island. She had a completely nonexistent figure back then but she still always managed to steal his breath away when she wore the suit, and she would always blush over her whole body when he said something along the lines of what he said here and now, in the landscape of his all-powerful inner world._

_True to his memories she blushed the same way she used to when they were kids as well; her entire body and her well endowed chest breaking out in a full body blush as Ash couldn't help but smile sheepishly. He was amazed that such an obvious and simple comment on her appearance could cause her to react the way she was towards him, she always did seem to return his enormous, monster crush on her even if he couldn't fathom why she liked him so. Looking at her now, Ash could tell she could easily have any man on earth that she wanted yet for some unfathomable reason she saw fit to come and see him here today, in his own infinite mind. He'd have been horrified by the implications surrounding her intrusion of his otherwise impenetrable mind had he not been so certain of what she was, and why she was choosing to appear to him in such a provocative and sexually attractive form._

_The adult version of Serena giggled, sensing where his mind was headed and fully prepared to fulfill his every dirty fantasy, his wildest dreams, and his kinkiest sex fetishes, as was part of her job description as Ash well knew now. "You're the manifestation of my unconscious mind and my heart's every desire, be it deep or otherwise. I'm guessing you're here now, acting as a partially separate personality to try and sway me into accepting a relationship with Serena, the very same girl whose likeness you're imitating. Did I get all that about right?" Ash queried sardonically, having never had much trouble from his own unconscious mind or his own innermost consciousness and wondering why in the hell his inner self, his fundamental spiritual self was choosing to pester him now when he just wanted some peace and quiet._

_He hadn't meant to fall asleep but if he had known this manifestation of his deepest and most desperate desires was the cause behind his sudden bout of drowsiness he would have opted to run a marathon, do jumping jacks, watch horror flicks, or any number of other activities to force himself to stay awake. Anything beat the impending lecture he sensed on the traitorous lips of this Serena lookalike his unconscious mind had chosen to manifest. She giggled again, knowing exactly what in the hell he was thinking and knowing him better than he knew himself at times. "That's not all Ash, I chose this form for a very good reason, number one to fulfill your sexual desires while you sleep, but mostly because this form I choose represents the one thing in all of totality your heart desires most of all. You want so badly to find a way to beat all the odds you think are stacked up against you and live a rich, fulfilling life with this woman Serena; you have all the love in the omniversal emotional spectrum to give Ash Ketchum, yet to take none of it for yourself, and this in turn has made you selfless to a fault and miserable as can be._

_Chronic depression is not normal for a guy as young and as healthy as you are and we both know this, but I'm here to let you know in no uncertain terms that you're allowed to be a human being, that you're allowed to feel both positive and negative emotions. Human emotions are what made you who you are today, yet the only side of the emotional spectrum you seem properly in tune with these days is the negative ones; you're hesitant to let other people in and indulge in your positive feelings because you have convinced yourself that feeling all these good and blissful sensations will lead to more heartache, more anguish, and more suffering in the end. Did I get all that right?" she said somewhat seriously, gazing sympathetically at him using Serena's eyes as Ash noticed she was using his own previous statement against him and proceeded to stick his tongue out at her like a giant four year old._

"_Well can you blame me, every time I've opened my heart to romance in the past I've gotten either rejected by May, and allowed to be in a relationship with Dawn for a little while before she proceeded to crush my heart. Oh and might I mention that the first girl I ever loved, before I even knew what love was, left me when I was eight. All of my previous romantic attachments have bad memories attached to them and the ones I love are always going to be either the ones who pay or the ones who leave, and quite frankly if that's how it is going to be than maybe it is just better to go it alone, because the more you care the more you have to lose. Besides, this whole stupid thing about me being literally predestined for Serena as her soul mate is kinda dickish on the UV's Creator's part; plus with the life that I lead it is just better for everyone if I don't get involved with the one person in all of totality whom I totally, unconditionally love," Ash explained his reasoning for all of his loneliness in recent years in what he hoped was an explanation his unconscious mind would accept._

_She gazed at him in a seemingly endless abundance of sympathy and concern, the love shining out from her cerulean eyes representing all the hidden, pent up capacity for love Ash himself kept buried with an omni-locked seal. This wall of negativity was like an impenetrable barrier enclosing his heart, keeping him from opening it, and he knew that dwelling in the negative energy and feelings of the world was the only way to keep his heart from aching with longing for his soul mate. His anger, his depression, and his hatred were the only emotions strong enough within him to crush down on his capacity for love and suffocate it, but like all bottled up emotions his endless capacity for love was crying out for release and this manifestation before him was warning him of the impending explosion of sexual, romantic, and blissful frustration his absolute spiritual energy was keeping a tight lid on._

_Ash had been attuned with the darkness around the wells of his heart for so long that coming out into the light would be nothing to him but blinding. His doppelganger had said to simply let it run its course by embracing it rather than hiding from it but he just felt so depressed and so alone all the time and simply embracing it didn't seem to help alleviate the pain of his and Dawn's hard breakup or the fact that May had rejected him, or that he'd realized his crush on Misty only to realize she had fallen for Tracey Sketchit too late. His whole life had been full of human relationships that ended too soon and he was afraid that each new person he let in would either follow their own path in the end or be put in danger time and again and decide they wanted nothing more to do with him. Ash knew he couldn't do anything about the danger, his mantle as the Aura Phoenix among other things would make sure that he'd always be on the forefront of dangerous scenarios, but he had figured after years of stopping bad guys with no loss of life among his friends, his lovers, or their families that they'd give him the benefit of the doubt, but nope._

_Brock at least had stuck around with Ash for years on end, traveling with him longer and further than any of his other companions, Misty had gone back home to be the Cerulean gym leader in her sisters' stead, and all his other companions had left for their own reasons or to pursue their own dreams. Ash had not begrudged any of them the opportunity to make it on their own steam, but all he had ever wanted in life was just one person, one true friend or lover who would stay with him until the end of his journey and be there to see him one day conquer the Pokemon League's World Championship Tournament and finally dethrone his godlike father as the Pokemon Master of the world and the most powerful man in the universe._

_Ash had always secretly hoped that Serena would be the one to journey with him unto the ends of the earth and whatever lay beyond, but she had left to, gone Arceus knows where and seemingly never to return. It had been the hardest day of his entire life, watching the one person he totally loved as she was forced to leave him with a heart wrenching goodbye, never to see each other again. It still made his heart ache to think about it even today._

_He wanted more than anything to find her and ask her to come with him on his journey no matter where it may have lead them, but was a little at war with himself about how to go about doing that without needlessly endangering her or to suddenly ask so much of her when she might actually have their own life now, or Arceus forbid if she had fallen in love with someone else. Who the hell was he to just assume she would cater to the whims of a boy she hadn't seen nor heard from in over eight years, whom she might not even remember or even if she did, not as fondly as he remembered her. It was ludicrous to even think about entertaining the idea of tracking her down in such a manner, but even as he kept telling himself all of this and all of his lifetime of reasons not to indulge in positive feelings his unconscious inner mind kept staring at him in the form of Serena, the one form she could have chosen to sway him in any case._

_As his doppelganger had so aptly put it, he was the third type of person who goes through a crucible, the kind that learned to love the fire, the kind that chose to stay in their crucible because it was easier to embrace the pain when it was all one knew anymore. Ash hadn't always been this dark or this depressing, hell there was once a time he was a truly happy and optimistic person, but a lifetime of painful experiences relating to his love life and even his father's abandonment of him and his mother had begun to take its toll. Eventually the charming, happy little boy he had been grew into a dark, dank, and depressingly bittersweet young man._

_He still had the charm and the ability to fake a smile every now and again but it was almost always forced, and although Bonnie and Clemont meant well by sticking with him despite his warnings he knew it was only a matter of time before they left as well. Weirdly enough Ash hadn't been entirely truthful with them when he explained his reasoning; yes it was true that traveling with him tended to get really dangerous before long but the good moments almost always outweighed the bad and when it came to such moments where their lives were on the line, Ash had sufficient powers both as a Pokemon trainer and as master of infinite spiritual energies to preserve and protect his friends' lives, or even resurrect them if they ended up dead and there was an overwhelmingly compelling reason for him to do so._

_Even his painstaking efforts to protect his dual identity as the Aura Phoenix in recent years wasn't really because of the dangers to his loved ones but rather because people feared what they didn't understand and Ash already had enough attention and enough press, both good and bad without his alter ego being added into the mix. It was just easy for him personally to treat the two as separate beings entirely, and it gave any enemies he ended up making double the trouble, and leading the likes of Team Plasma to believe that they had two incredibly powerful enemies instead of one was quite a stroke of genius on Ash's part if he did say so himself. So while someone like Team Plasma would exhaust their resources trying to track down the Aura Phoenix, which Ash had gone to great lengths to promote as the more powerful of the two of his double identities, Ash himself would take second priority and be able to take on the weaker members of the team virtually unopposed without them being any the wiser to his unlimited spiritual powers or his plethora of unstoppable and potentially omnipotent legendary Pokemon._

_Serena's lookalike smiled at him once more, evidently pleased with how honest he was being about his true feelings right now and evidently suspecting that Ash would need some help alleviating some of the pent up emotional love angst he'd allowed to bottle up inside of him. "I understand your reasoning for everything Ash and I still think you should go for it. Find Serena and pick up where you two left off, at least find her and tell her how you felt about her way back when so you can finally let go and live a little. You two are destined for each other yes, and I get that you don't like not having a choice in the matter, but I seriously think the UV's Omni-Creator knows what he is doing. Something tells me that you're not going to have a problem convincing Serena to come along with you or bond herself to you forever," his unconscious self smiled knowingly, and Ash realized there were things this innermost essence of himself knew that he didn't as he quirked an eyebrow at her statement._

_Sensing what was on his mind, fake Serena immediately hastened to elaborate, "I mean to say that the soul bond between the two of you will bring with it the promise of eternal happiness for the two of you together so long as you both agree to finalize the unbreakable marriage contract," his dream girl said in an angelic, inhumanly perfect voice as Ash scoffed at her comment. "You mean that this bond between us has eliminated any freedom of choice we have, don't you?" Ash glared somewhat half-heartedly, knowing she would see through his thinly veiled facade and that she would know immediately that this was his heart's deepest desire all along, long before he ever even knew about the soul bond between him and his precious straw hat girl._

"_It's not a question of choice Ash, you and your universe's Serena are destined for each other, plain and simple. We all have a destiny to fulfill but how we go about fulfilling that destiny, that's where the element of choice comes in. You may have been a predetermined perfect match for Serena and her for you as well, but clearly some element of choice and of chance applies to your situation otherwise you both would have been forced to comply with the contract right off the Crobat against your will, even if the two of you had been children at the time if free will didn't exist the two of you would have been forced into an arranged marriage. But no Ash, you two met and had a chance to connect with one another, and all this time you've harbored a strong romantic attraction to her and have loved her since before you even knew what love was, before you ever even knew about the soul bond. This the nature of your relationship and where the line is drawn between destiny and freedom of choice," his dream girl explained once again, and Ash sighed in defeat at her flawless logic, unable to find any imperfections in her counterargument._

"_I guess you have a good point, but what am I supposed to do, even if she feels as I do how would I even go about finding her?" Ash finally wondered in defeat as his dreamy Serena lookalike's smile widened considerably. "I doubt that will be much of a problem either Ash; you two were best friends and true friendship never dies, plus you're soul mates and when it comes to love the universe has a funny way of allowing one to overcome any and all hurdles. Now, your body needs some form of release Ash, I think we have forestalled this long enough don't you?" Serena concluded with a saucy wink as she stood up and strolled over to Ash, a lustful look in her eyes as all the ire and the frustration with his situation drained from Ash's system entirely. He knew this vision of absolute beauty was not the real Serena but it was hard not to imagine her as the real deal especially when she looked exactly like how he imagined her older self to appear._

"_But you're not the real Serena," Ash pointed out feebly as his dream girl closed the gap between them ever so slowly, her hot breath on his face as she nuzzled inside his chest and threw her arms around his midsection letting him know undoubtedly that she was as real as he was in this realm of his infinite desires. "I'm as real as you want me to be Ashy boy, I'll be your sexual partner, the being with which you can play out your most lewd sexual fantasies, and anything else you need or want me to be, so just say the word and it shall be so," dream Serena whispered seductively as Ash suddenly lost the power of coherent speech and merely stumbled and tripped over his own poorly attempted words, his clumsiness causing this figment of his heart's most desperate desires to giggle in the same adorably innocent manner eight year old Serena used to do, but with a far less innocent undertone than any child could ever realistically possess._

_Suddenly realizing that this was quickly escalating into a sex dream of epic proportions and that his body, mind, and soul did indeed crave release as badly as she claimed, Ash was quite unprepared for when the Serena lookalike captured his lips in a searing, sensual Kalosian kiss that he felt all the way down in his toes, and for the moment he allowed himself to believe he was out there in the real world, kissing the real Serena and not this figment of his dreams and imagination. Somehow imagining this as the real deal made his very essence ache with hopeless longing and increased his pleasure from the kiss infinity fold._

_A trail of ethereal saliva connected their mouths as they separated and his fantastical version of his closest friend began to strip tease him by slowly but surely unzipping the back of her sundress and lowering it down below her chest, ever so slowly revealing those beautiful, d-cup mounds to him as she slid out of her sundress. After an agonizingly long time his dream Serena's breasts bobbed free of their constraints and they were even bigger and better than he imagined. Whoever said looks didn't matter had clearly never been in love with a goddess of this impossible level of gorgeousness themselves, because this girl's supple, pale skinned, bodacious curves caused Ash's pubescent body to spiral out of control with want and desire, with an insatiable need to touch her and to make love to her until they couldn't stand up straight._

_Somehow knowing this was all a dream didn't stop Ash from enjoying himself, and if his unconscious self craved release for all of his pent up sexual frustration and his positive emotions and infinite capacity for love, then he was planning on giving this all he had as Serena ended the teasing and tore her dress clean off of her body and showed her every intimate detail for him and him alone to see. Capturing her lips in another Planck temperature kiss, Ash's blood boiled and his erection hardened in his sleep as ceaseless pleasured bombarded his cosmic senses for what seemed a small, blissful eternity before he woke up and the feeling of Serena's warm, wet mouth wrapping around his manhood stayed with him in his waking moments as he was brought to completion by her imaginary blowjob. Amazingly enough he somehow knew that as good as this sex dream had felt the real deal would feel so much better and the pleasure between him and his bond mate would continually increase by infinite leaps and bounds. All he had to do was muster up the courage to track her down and tell her all the things he should have told her eight years ago, how hard could that be?_

XXXXX

Ash moaned aloud an rapture as he awoke in the middle of a truly mind numbing orgasm, every cell in his body entering a state of superhuman excitement that would have allowed him to phase through solid objects had he been running towards them, and he swore as his seed ended up soiling his underpants and even soaked through his jeans. Now fully awake and still reeling from the aftermath of that insanely pleasurable climax, Ash felt like he had finally had a chance to work off some of his pent up romantic frustration. All the pent of feelings he had kept a tight lid on had been slightly relieved during this experience and his talk with his innermost self had helped him a lot as well. It also seemed his inner essence was content with using the dirtiest tricks in the book, which was taking on the likeness of the one friend he had who had been able to talk him down every time, who had been able to help him come to terms with his every issue at the time; who had always been there for him through thick and thin, whether to comfort him or just play with him like the two kooky kids they were. Serena had been a better friend to him in two and a half years than all his other friends had been combined throughout the entirety of their relationship with him.

Even Dawn had ultimately fallen short of Ash's precious straw hat girl in the end, and if not for the fact that fate had intervened and her mother had forced her to move away from Pallet town, Ash had the feeling he and Serena would still be together even now and maybe they would even be together for the rest of their lives. Ash tried not to dwell on what could've been but he always hated the thought of just how intensely close he and Serena could have become had they had more time together. He'd give anything to see her again and was now fully prepared to track her down, but first he needed a change of clothes and a quick shower, that right now was his first priority. And so with his pants and underpants soiled by his orgasmic love juices, Ash chucked them in the haphazard laundry hamper he had set up in his room and quickly stripped naked before walking into the bathroom and locking the bathroom door behind him.

XXXXX

"Clemont hurry the heck up, it's almost time for Ash's first gym battle in Kalos and I don't want to miss it," Bonnie whined insistently as she and her out of shape brother made haste for the Pokemon center after watching the must-see movie of the year. Diantha herself was the star in a movie featuring Arceus's legendary Chosen Champion, a mythical savior whom many didn't even believe existed and whom legend had it was destined to lead the world to a new era, an age of infinite power and eternal happiness like none ever seen before.

Diantha had played the role of the mysterious Chosen One, a being bestowed with many godlike powers by Arceus as the movie employed all sorts of epic graphics and Diantha's character battled a rampaging Giratina who had been a common recurring villain in lots and lots of movies about Pokemon in recent years. Of course it was all ridiculous, as powerful as she was Diantha wasn't some all-powerful champion of the universe who was appointed by Arceus himself; but Bonnie had still enjoyed the thriller and the plot behind the storyline was very well done. Nevertheless she liked to live in the real world and Ash was the closest thing to a real life superhero she might ever know, so she'd be damned if she missed out on his battle with Viola the bug type gym leader.

"I'm running as fast as I can. Bonnie go on without me, I'll catch up," Clemont wheezed somewhere behind her as she continued to run without even having to think about it. Sometimes she couldn't believe how slow her brother was and how big the gap was between them and their respective fitness levels.

Reaching the Pokemon center first and leaving Clemont behind in her wake, Bonnie slowed down and adopted a calmer, far more careful expression as she waved politely to Nurse Joy on her way to Ash's room, the pink haired nurse busy accepting another trainer's Pokemon for treatment but smiling at her nonetheless as the blonde haired sibling drew a deep breath and walked towards Ash's room down at the end of the hallway. She saw that the door to his room was partially ajar and she could hear the shower running which meant he was getting cleaned up. Opting to give him some privacy, Bonnie was just about to turn back when the shower stopped and she heard Ash stepping out of the tub onto the bathroom floor tiles, his footfalls somewhat heavy as Bonnie could practically hear him sighing in relief from the hot water relaxing his muscles.

She waited until she decided it was safe before simply walking in the room without so much as a knock and quite unprepared for what she saw. Ash had a towel wrapped around his private areas, but that was all he had on so far, and Bonnie could see his muscular back as it was turned to her, but what freaked her out was not how muscular he was but how many scars were running across his entire torso in all sorts of different directions. She felt like crying as she slowly took a step closer to him, unable to fathom how or why his body had taken such a beating and barely managing to speak up above a whisper.

"Where... did you get those," she murmured feebly, her voice softer than fleece yet still enough to get Ash's attention as he immediately whirled around to face her, his eyes wide like a Deerling caught in the headlights. "DON'T YOU KNOCK?!" he roared at her unexpectedly, making her flinch back at the sudden anger he was displaying, but she remained largely undeterred as she managed to find the strength to walk towards him, taking in the sights of his battle hardened demeanor and his body which was covered from head to foot in what looked like all types of scars, some even looked like they could be bullet wounds or sword slashes.

Ash's anger immediately melted upon glimpsing the scared, confused, and ultimately worried look on Bonnie's face, and he was quite shocked when she walked right up to him and started tentatively running her index finger along the lines where his body's scars from wars were, tracing them with her fingertips as he bit back a moan from the unexpected combination of pain and pleasure coming from her fingers as they made contact. He hadn't any idea that his scars were still very sensitive but he felt comfort from her touch, wanting to reassure her as she mindlessly skated her digits across his chest, not even seeming convinced that his war torn body was even real and trying to wrap her head around the fact that Ash had been through hell all the years of his journey.

Finally feeling satisfied that they were real, Bonnie pulled back to lock eyes with him, and was shocked when he smiled gently at her. "It's not so bad, most of these little guys healed years ago Bon-Bon," Ash explained to her truthfully. In all honesty the majority of these scars came from before he even discovered how to use his spiritual powers, and since discovering them his body's cellular energy could be increased to infinite levels allowing him to regenerate from any form of harm, any injury or laceration including severed limbs, ruptured organs, and even crazier shit like having his head blown off his shoulders, though he wasn't sure about that last bit and only thought of it as a possible theory, not wanting to ever be in a position where he'd have to test it firsthand. All and all, Ash's abilities afforded him absolute regenerative powers and he was convinced that he was in many different ways... immortal.

Maybe not on the supreme scale that omnipotent gods like Arceus were, but Ash was far from being easy to kill and he wished so much that he could tell Bonnie everything, even if it was only to reassure her. He still thought it was too soon though and there was no telling how she and her brother would react if they knew how he spent his nights. They might've only been slightly concerned for his sake, or they could've been so scared for him that they would leave out of some effort to convince him not to risk his life the way he did, something he knew he could never do; Ash knew it was only a matter of time before his new friends found out the truth but he was still scared of everything he couldn't control, which was an awful lot. Even after his rather erotic dream he wasn't entirely convinced Bonnie or Clemont would ever fully understand the complexities that made up his nature, and he didn't want to tempt fate but revealing too much too soon before they were ready to handle it.

Bonnie tried to smile but she knew it looked forced, and she tried to reassure herself that Ash wasn't in any danger being on his journey but couldn't bring herself to believe it. In the past week or so Ash had grown to be a sort of role model to her, and she admired and respected him to the moon and back; he was without a doubt the perfect big brother type figure to her to, the kind every little sister could learn to love wholly and unconditionally. As perhaps the only little sister Ash ever had, Bonnie knew it was her responsibility to help look after him while he was here in Kalos and his mom couldn't be there for him.

"What happened to you on your journey Ash?" she finally queried with an undertone of deep worry and concern for the older boy, hoping he would have the courage to confide in her and let her know what was bothering him but promising to respect his decision if he didn't think she was the one he wanted to be that open with. "A lot," he said vaguely and almost instantly in response to her questioning statement, and Bonnie looked up into his amber eyes to see a wistful expression and a faraway look in those gorgeous peepers of his. She nodded understandingly, sensing that Ash wasn't about to say anymore and deciding to go and check on Clemont while Ash got dressed and ready to face his gym battle with Viola. Looking over to his bed Bonnie could see that Pikachu was fast asleep already and was napping in preparation in case Ash needed him for anything. Deciding this was her cue to leave, Bonnie finally did so but not before she offered Ash some advice before departing.

"Ash, I get that you don't want to talk about whatever is bothering you and I respect your privacy, but for your own sake if nothing else try to let someone, anybody in. You may actually be surprised by how much talking helps, the pain you feel right now, whatever is causing it is not going to go away until you face up to it and talk to someone you trust. It could be your mother, a friend, or even a lover of some sort; I don't care about whom it is, I just care about seeing you get better because I care about you," Bonnie smiled sadly before walking out of the room to leave Ash to his thoughts. She was surprised however to find Clemont standing outside the door with a kind smile on his face as he looked down at her.

"You did well Bonnie, talking to him like that; now come on let's go get ready for Ash's battle as well, truth be told I could use a quick shower and you need to brush your teeth because you had way too much candy at the theater," Clemont informed her sagely as Bonnie nodded her head in acceptance, relenting that her dear brother may have had a good point and still feeling the residual traces of the sugar rush in her system as she realized she was close to crashing. She only hoped she could stay awake long enough to watch Ash win his first gym badge and she had no doubt that he would. Following Clemont to their room across the hall, Bonnie was suddenly overcome by the strangest, most inexplicable feeling of foreboding as an impending disaster was poised around the outskirts of Santalune city. Quickly shaking it off, Bonnie followed her brother and closed the door to their room with a quiet snap.

XXXXX

In the newly regenerated forests of Route 4, a seemingly endless battalion of men and women in strange orange suits were getting ready to put their plan into motion. They had recently been informed that the female gym leader's sister was privy to all the recent goings on and information throughout Kalos. They had plans to take this entire city hostage and to abduct the gym leader Viola in an effort to force Alexa to comply with their every command, whim, and desire. Of course they could have simply constructed a quiet capture of Viola but weren't foolish enough to believe they wouldn't be met with resistance, and besides that recent news reports had come in that Ash Ketchum was in this city and was preparing to challenge the gyms of Kalos. They knew he'd immediately sense something was up when he showed up at the gym only to realize the leader was missing, and so Team Flare had to adjust its plan accordingly.

Of course, everybody knew who Ash Ketchum was these days, a top tier, elite level trainer who had a rather annoying habit of interfering with the plans of many organized crime gangs including Team Aqua, Magma, Galactic, and most recently Team Plasma. Ghetsis and the infamous Shadow Triad had been executed outright by the superhuman vigilante known as the Aura Phoenix, who had allied himself with Ash's entourage more than once and who had proven he was willing to go to extremes to deal with extremists, something most people on the side of good lacked the courage to do. Most of these organizations nowadays were too afraid of the Aura Phoenix's wrath to bother with organized crime anymore and most of them had been ill prepared for his inevitable interference. The difference this time, was that Team Flare was expecting both him and Ash Ketchum alike to get involved in their affairs all too soon, and their boss had to pay some of the cowardly grunts and even administrators a very hefty wage in order to convince them to stay with the operation despite the godlike being who would no doubt execute them if left unchecked.

For one particular Team Flare admin however, the thought of battling such a powerful and worthy adversary was exciting and caused her entire body to burn with a desire to engage him. Malva was the prodigious second in command of all of Team Flare; with hot pink hair coming just past her shoulders, a flaming red belly shirt exposing her strong, lean, and sexy core, skin tight skinny jeans as red as her shirt, and bright pink eyes that burned with an almighty blaze, an all-consuming fire. Her Pokemon roster was chalk full of level infinity fire type Pokemon as well as the means to mega evolve them. Her mega Houndoom and Mega Charizard Z went hand in hand, due to Charizard's Z's desolate land ability and Mega Houndoom's solar power ability allowing it to instantly achieve Planck temperature and hotter when firing off its attacks without any amount of effort or exertion whatsoever. She had mega Blaziken and all the fire type starters as well as her most famous Pokemon, her gale wings Talonflame, all at level Infinity. On top of that she also possessed Darmanitan who had its Zen Mode ability and a whole sleuth of other fire types on her seemingly endless roster of godlike fire types. Her magical creatures were capable of setting the totality of existence ablaze and causing any and all things to spontaneously combust with an almighty, inextinguishable heat wave.

The best part was that due to being level infinity, Houndoom's ability didn't sap its energy to use, but it did allow it to achieve the hottest temperatures known to man with a ridiculous amount of ease and even allowed it to draw from the infinite solar radiation of the sun that Charizard Z created and use the absolute radiation as an infinitely potent projection to burn her opponent's Pokemon into complete nonexistence with a single burst of heat. Her preference for supreme fire types along with her blazing hot personality and smoldering good looks earned her the nickname the Human Kugelblitz among Team Flare's top scientists including the ever stoic and emotionless Doctor Xerosic himself.

Malva was a champion level trainer now and easily in the same league as Flint of the Sinnoh Elite Four, possessing nearly every fire type known to man at level infinity; she even had some of the legends including Heatran, Moltres, and Entei, all three of whom were rare and extremely difficult to catch. She always desired the power of Ho-Oh, Primal Groudon, and even fire type Arceus more than anything but knew those godlike beings would probably never allow her to capture them in this lifetime; still it was nice to dream and besides which maybe she could battle such Pokemon someday which would be still more than satisfactory enough for her. Maybe they would even get involved in an effort to stop Team Flare from achieving its ends, but perhaps that was wishful thinking to. Malva had done it though, she had assimilated skills and abilities as an aspiring all-powerful fire type Pokemon mistress that few could ever hope to match, and Lysandre always told her that her almighty passionate blaze would one day raze the whole of creation from end to end, that she'd take the entire universe by storm and fire.

She was leading this operation in the highly likely event that Ash Ketchum and even the Aura Phoenix got involved to stop her fellow Flare members from achieving their objective. She was insurance to make sure the superhuman and top tier trainer were both thoroughly distracted in any scenario where they might interfere. She knew Ash would, what with him being that type of do-gooder who would always get caught up in doing the right thing even if it would make his life miserable. Malva was only 18 years old but she was already in deep with Team Flare and planned to make the most of the life Lysandre had given her, as far as he told her she'd already obtained her ticket to tomorrow and had worked hard to get where she was unlike the lazy multitudes who just waited for things to be handed to them. Lysandre had seen the powers she possessed as an aspiring all-powerful fire type specialist and opted to recruit her right away, giving her the life and the desperate battles she'd always craved.

Growing up in the lap of luxury meant that Malva had been living a life of privilege, but even at an early age she knew that money couldn't buy happiness or the things in life she wanted the most. She had always loved Pokemon battling and fire types since she could remember and had asked her family if they could maybe spare enough money to buy her a golden trainer card so she could have access to competitively perfect Pokemon at the Sycamore Pokemon lab; this endlessly high ranking trainer card was obscenely expensive and only given to the trainers that had shown the most promise but Malva had always been a prodigy and had never really asked for anything from her family before, so being the nice parents her mother and father were they did as she asked just that one time.

Obtaining a hexa perfect Fennekin with an infinite IV spread, experience yield, and its hidden ability as her starter had been the best start to a Pokemon trainer's career Malva could ever have asked for, yet it was only going to get better. She had gotten to work to immediately train her new starter both in the wild and in Coliseum tournaments throughout Lumiose and captured a gale wings Fletchling as her first wild Pokemon capture. She had used her Pokedex to scan various Fletchling for their abilities and the moves they knew and the approximate lever they were at which took countless hours. Finally after days of searching she happened across a hexa perfect Fletchling and challenged it to a fight; she and her Braixen managing to overpower and capture it as Malva decided to search for the only other fire type Pokemon one could find in Santalune forest which was a Pansear, knowing that three Pokemon would be all she needed to compete in the tournament and even the incredibly hard to win Battle Institute.

Sycamore had been exuberant with praise about her as one of his best sponsored trainers yet and this in turn got the attention of Lysandre, who was an old friend of his and the Champion Diantha, the three of them having been best friends way back when and the top three trainers in all of Lumiose. After weeks of training her Pokemon and evolving her Pansear with a fire stone, Malva deemed herself ready for the Coliseum challenge and won the whole thing, the training she got there paying off as both her Braixen and newly evolved Fletchinder evolved to their final stages and reached level 100.

After winning her way through the Battle Institute and reaching a level of infinity for all three of her first Pokemon due to challenging it constantly; Malva not only reached the master rank at the institute but also earned Lysandre's full and undivided attention and support as he decided to approach her for the first time. After a brief discussion about how well she was doing in the battling circuit Lysandre decided to offer her a under the table job as one of the members of a secret society he had slowly building underneath the city's old catacombs. At first Malva refused due to Lysandre's vague responses to what she would be expected to do, but he was persistent and when she walked off to go home to her family she was surprised to see a package waiting for her straight from Lysandre labs.

He had sent her a Holo Caster, the simulated reality system called Super Training, a brand new Pokemon Navigator straight from Devon Corp with all the newest features including the Dex Navigator which could scan the entire world for a specific Pokemon with hexa perfect stats and/or hidden abilities and lead the trainer straight to the first one it found. The nature of the obscenely expensive gifts surprised even her, and she found herself wondering how much money Lysandre had to be able to buy her stuff like this. At that moment she seriously considered if she wanted to take him up on his offer and quite frankly her family just wasn't interested in her daily adventures with her Pokemon or her journey to become an all-powerful fire type trainer. They understood and supported her on her journey but just didn't have a vested interest and here Lysandre was, expressing more of an interest in her hobbies than any member of her family ever had done in a lifetime. It was a tempting offer to accept his gifts and accept his job opportunity.

Finally she met him for coffee at his cafe to discuss what her final decision was, and at 13 years of age she was already planning to leave her old life behind and join this elite group. She had grown bored of the lack of suitable challenges in Lumiose city and Lysandre seemed to have unspeakable amounts of resources and the kind of influence that could attract far more... exotic Pokemon and trainers to her midst and give her the kind of overwhelmingly desperate battles that made her blood boil like nothing else ever could. She was a prodigy and her own family wasn't doing much to help her nurse her obvious talents and some of her siblings even gave her a rough time for daring to be such a wunderkind.

Lysandre had discussed his reasons for offering her the job and explained to her what his general plan was and why he thought the world needed to change. He explained that he tried to save everyone with the profits he made from his lab but the world was too big, and too full of stupid people who weren't willing to work tirelessly to achieve an end such as saving the world from overpopulation and scarcity of resources. Malva had been horrified at first by what Lysandre explained to her, how he could possibly have given up on the world so easily without fighting to save everyone in it no matter the cost. She left him without any desire to return once she became aware of what he was planning, but then something horrible and traumatic happened that would always haunt her from then on.

Apparently the Lumiose Gang had gotten a new, far more aggressive leader who revolted against the town's vigilante known as Essentia; she tried to stop them and keep the whole gang war quiet on her lonesome but apparently things had spiraled out of control. The gang members, desperate for cash and for money, stormed Malva's house, killed her family, and took all their belongings and valuable possessions before driving off into the night and burning her house down to the ground. It was the most horrifying, gut wrenching, and traumatizing experience of Malva's life, and she realized for the first time that there were people out there who truly could not be saved; who were so desperate for power, money, and control that they'd kill innocents to get it. She realized with absolute certainty in those moments of pure, unspeakable, fiery rage that Lysandre was right, the world population had become a breeding ground for corruption, violence, and death because there wasn't enough resources to go around or enough power and energy to fuel the desires of the cruel and the twisted.

Realizing now that Lysandre was right and that she had nowhere else to go, Malva took up his offer without hesitation and opted to hunt down the offending parties who took her family from her first thing. Now armed with an inextinguishable blaze of fury and hatred, Malva had lead a task force with Lysandre's permission to raid the base of the new Lumiose gang and had killed every gang member coming; Malva herself had tortured and murdered the leader who had been there the night her family died. She had delved into her dark side more that day than she ever had before, had raped him and stripped away his male pride, his dignity, and taken everything else from him before finally killing him. The sick part about it was he enjoyed the brief moments of sexual pleasure she gave him, but she made sure he knew for absolute certainty that this brief sexual experience was the last one he'd ever feel in this life of crime he had chosen.

She was 13 when she did this, 13 years old when she killed her first man, and from then on she decreed that no woman should ever have to suffer because of a man, nobody should have to have their family killed just because someone wanted power or to satiate their own sadistic urges. Whatever innocence she and her Pokemon had died that very same day, and she knew she would work tirelessly to achieve Lysandre's ultimate goal of wiping out the majority of mankind and Pokemon alike.

Such was her conviction that she had some very dark stuff in mind for Ash and even the Aura Phoenix, assuming of course she could manage to track the latter of the two down and convey her hatred so strongly that his natural ability to sense a person's emotions would allow her to corrupt him and maybe even convince her to join their cause. She knew about aura guardians and how their powers worked, having read up on them in preparation for this and even creating a sort of anti-spiritual power gem in an effort to stave off his aura manipulation powers. Forged from the omnipotent destructive powers of the omni-destruction orb Lysandre and his team had obtained, Malva had the means to nullify his spiritual powers when he was in her presence or at least weaken them somewhat. This orb had been created during a three way battle between Primal Xerneas, Primal Yveltal, and Perfect Zygarde, who mega evolved and who managed to sap the two primal Pokemon of their powers and cast away their ability to primal revert, trapping their true power within the omni-creation and omni-destruction orbs respectively.

Now at 18 years of age, Malva knew everything about Lysandre, his darkest secrets, his heart's deepest desires... everything. The original source of her inner fire and desire was to repay her family for their kindness by doing all she could to succeed at her own goals and make it on her own steam; now though she was in it only for the thrill of battling strong opponents and avenging her family's deaths against the entire fucking world. She had lead a mission just recently to help Lysandre acquire the two omnipotent relics that would allow Xerneas and Yveltal to regain their original forms and their true powers; Lysandre however used them as an infinite power source to forge almighty weapons of destruction and to create vast armies of fully trained Pokemon to do his bidding.

The omni-creation orb was extremely helpful with this and had even allowed Lysandre to attain absolute powers as a trainer. He had plans to create vast armies of all-powerful shadow Pokemon including legends such as Mew and even Arceus, but would only do so if all other plans to destroy the world and recreate it anew failed. Malva often questioned why Lysandre bothered with all this nonsense about finite resources if he possessed the means to create an infinite supply of any and all things, but he merely replied that people would abuse this kind of power and the only way to save the world was to take all of its limitless powers for himself and use them to wipe the slate clean. He said it was only through an extinction level event such as the one he planned to unleash that the members of Team Flare who obtained a ticket to tomorrow could remake the world into a true paradise.

"Admin Malva, we're ready to take the city," one of her grunts informed her, breaking her out of her thoughts as Malva prepared to lead the second wave of Team Flare grunts and administrators while the first wave blocked off all the exits and entrances to and from the city and barricaded every door, every entrance and exit to and from every building in the city. Under Lysandre's leadership Team Flare was already millions strong, and constantly growing; Malva herself was the equivalent of a million Pokemon armies but she knew she was needed here especially if Ash was here. Her job was simple, to track down Ash and his current entourage and hopefully distract them long enough for her operatives to capture Viola. It was risky and if the Aura Phoenix was around, may even be a death sentence for most people, but that's what made it so exciting for Malva; and she be damned if she came all this way only for the legendary aura master not to show up and give her his all in a battle to the death.

"Very well, let's get going; everyone move out," Malva commanded in her haughty voice, having had years to perfect her blazing, authoritative personality and knowing that disobedience to her orders could result in the disobeying party facing a death by fire, the most painful way to go. Quickly checking and double checking her team belt to make sure she had every Pokemon she needed; Malva let her pink hair down like she knew most men found incredibly alluring and prepared to distract the Aura Phoenix and Ash in more ways than one.

She was half tempted to try and seduce them into joining Team Flare but figured that was a wasted effort; still though she supposed it was worth a try because Team Flare may have been extremists, they may have even been omnicidal if Lysandre's ultimate goal was taken into account, but they were right about a lot of things and were willing to do whatever it took to save the world, even if it meant removing 90 percent of the planet's population, the very same 90 percent that tolerated the existence of scum like that bastard who killed her family years back. She would find the Aura Phoenix and do whatever it took to make him see things her way; whether it was a heated, glorious battle or an even hotter sexual encounter. Malva had an insatiable sexual desire for powerful men like him and knew she could take advantage of the fact that for all of his powers he was still a guy. Men really were such weak, feeble minded creatures; all a woman needed to do was be reasonably attractive and touch them in the right spot for a little while, and they were putty in that woman's hands, free for her to remold as she damn well pleased.

XXXXX

"Ugh finally made it," Serena groaned tiredly upon setting foot on the cemented asphalt of the Santalune city streets. Her feet were killing her and her body was protesting violently with the dull thrums of fatigue no thanks to the horrifying turn of events from only an hour or so ago. Luckily the planet had been spared an abrupt ending, and she got to encounter an Arceus and obtain a precious gemstone that could be used to befriend an unlimited number of Pokemon and store an endless supply of any and all types of items and previsions. All that was left now was for her to check in at the Pokemon center, take a short, half hour nap, shower, and all the necessities of life before she made some kind of dramatic entrance at the Santalune city gym while Ash was watching.

She found herself wondering if Ash was currently residing in the Pokemon center right now or if he was out and about training for his gym battle. Believing the latter to be true, Serena opted to get some information on when Viola was due back at her gym because she knew that as soon as word reached his ears about it Ash would be off like a flash, just like when they were kids; he was always so rash and impulsive. Giggling at the many fond memories she had of him when they were kids, Serena quickly grew excited as she reached the Pokemon center at long last and walked through the automatic doors. She had been expecting Ash to be out training somewhere, so imagine her surprise and her astonishment when she saw him standing right at the front desk talking with Nurse Joy about something; two familiar blonde headed people standing beside him as he asked the ever kind nurse about using one of the video phones, to which she politely agreed and indicated the phone booths with her hand.

"Great thank you Nurse Joy, I won't be too long," she heard Ash say gratefully, but to Serena hearing his voice again after nearly ten years was like a dream; she kept expecting to wake up suddenly and find out this was all in her mind, yet despite the overpowering surrealism of this situation she somehow knew in her heart of hearts that this was real. Ash's back was turned to her as she mindlessly started walking up behind him, her legs carrying her forward of their own accord as her breathing became labored and her entire body broke out into a heavy blush. She was somehow aware of everything in the room, including things that should have been impossible such as Ash's current mood, which seemed to be fatigue mixed with strange relief much like her; this in turn gave her the inclination that their emotions were in sync and all the more incentive to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

The closer she got to him the more intensely she felt his emotions which felt unconnected and yet connected with her own; she was totally aware of everything inside his heart and had never felt such a strong wave of depression, negative energy and emotions in her entire life. But hidden buried beneath the impenetrable wall of negativity enclosed around his heart was the faint stirrings of happiness, an eternal capacity for love, and a capacity for hope so strong she was able to draw a never-ending well of emotional energy from it. The pain from both the positive and negative emotions was unbearable and she wanted to cry out upon feeling Ash's impossibly strong feelings slamming into her unabated, but she put on a brave face and slipped right past Clemont and Bonnie and straight to the boy she'd loved since before she even knew what love was, his back still turned to her as he prepared to head to the phone booths. His ever present Pikachu was perched on his left shoulder as she tapped his other one, awaiting a response.

She wasn't disappointed when he jumped with a start before turning around at an agonizingly slow pace, at least relative to Serena, who could only stand there in immeasurable glee and excitement while happily anticipating the look on his face. The shower and the whole process of making herself look presentable could wait, because she may not have ever gotten such a glorious opportunity to surprise him again, though to be honest there was no way he could be half as surprised to see her as she was to see him so soon and so suddenly as she did. She had been prepared for all kinds of different scenarios and imagined all kinds of amazing, romantic scenes when she first pictured their reunion, but this definitely wasn't one of them and her heart very nearly stopped when Ash finally finished turning around.

His jaw dropped upon gazing at her, recognition dawning on his face almost immediately and yet he stared at her in stunned disbelief, his incredulity palpable and hitting her like a two ton truck of emotional backlash as he struggled to gather his thoughts. Bonnie and Clemont merely stared at the pair in confusion, the both of them recognizing Serena from times when they met her in the past and glad to see her again, but unprepared for Ash's reaction when he saw her.

"Ser...Serena... My God is that really you?" Ash wondered in a daze, the only reason for his knowledge that this wasn't a dream because of the fact that the girl in front of him somehow gave off a spiritual presence as omnipotent and omni-dimensional as his own. Furrowing his eyebrows inwardly, Ash could sense that this girl, who looked so much like his Straw Hat Girl from times long since passed, possessed a boundless inner world of infinite spiritual energies much the same as him. The only difference was she clearly hadn't tapped into hers, but due to her abilities she had been able to slip right under Ash's radar all this time, for only another aura master could fool an aura master.

'_My Lord Arceus, she's grown into the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, and that's saying something,_' Ash gushed mentally, managing to fight down a full body blush as his eyes drunk her in with an insatiable thirst, unable to ever get enough of the vision of loveliness that now stood before him. He could feel his heart, his limitless spiritual energies, and even his very soul, crying out for her, desperately trying to bond itself to her as only two soul mates could be bonded. Ash didn't allow it and kept his rampant spiritual omnipotence on as short a leash as he could muster, but it wasn't easy especially given his close proximity to the girl of his dreams both literally and figuratively. Her eyes were much the same, bluer than blue and giving off intensity and a sparkle that could put Reshiram's blue flare attack to shame; but her honey colored hair was longer and she wore a pink felt hat in place of her straw hat from years ago. Her attire consisted of a black tank top and a modest red skirt that showed only a couple of inches of her thighs, the rest of her long, beautiful legs obscured by her black over the knee socks.

Her face was pale and lightly dripping in perspiration, most likely from the storm and whatever else had gone down while she'd been coming here; her lips were full, pink, and perfect. Ash's eyes didn't linger on her chest for too long, feeling obligated to respect her modesty; but it was long enough for him to work out that she was just as big as she had been in his sex dream from just moments before, double d-cup or so, maybe even bigger. All and all, she looked absolutely stunning, and had definitely grown up in ways most girls would be extremely envious of. How he recognized her for who she was when she had become such a beautiful young woman, was beyond him; he was surprised however just how accurate his imagined mental imaging of her young adult self had been, especially since he had no way of knowing how'd she turn out.

Serena merely nodded in response to his question, unable to form coherent thoughts or words at this point as the biggest, goofiest grin both Bonnie and Clemont had ever seen split Ash's face and he glomped Serena in a monstrous hug as both of them tumbled to the floor unexpectedly and burst out laughing. Ash's phone call to professor Oak was forgotten for the moment as he held his best friend in his arms for the first time in over eight years. Getting back up and smiling sheepishly while helping Serena to her feet, Ash was dead to everything else as his entire universe seemed to consist of this rare feeling of absolute euphoria at the prospect of reuniting with his best childhood friend, wanting to relish this sheer ecstasy while he could before reality set in once again.

"Aw man, it really is you; I mean I always hoped we'd find each other again but I never expected to find you in such an out of the blue fashion. I really missed you straw hat girl," Ash smiled with literal tears of joy falling down his cheeks as Serena felt her heart melting and her arms snaking around his neck of their own accord as they embraced each other once again. Somehow hearing him call her by her little nickname he used back in their childhood just made this moment all the more special; Bonnie and Clemont didn't dare to speak a word and ruin the moment, and the younger of the two realized she may have just found a dependable wife for Ash. Serena was definitely a keeper of colossal proportions, something Bonnie had once made abundantly clear to Clemont a few years back only for both him and Serena to reject her attempts to pair them up.

At least now she understood why, and felt it was so romantic that Serena had her heart set on Ash for all these years. There were of course some hurdles to overcome and some questions to be asked, such as how they knew each other, but Bonnie could wait; she was very patient when she needed to be and as far as the little girl was concerned Serena had everything she could every possibly need to not only win Ash's heart but also to keep him happy and make him whole again. It was as if this reencounter was an act of Arceus himself, and Bonnie found herself wondering if there truly was such a thing as fate or even divine intervention but decided to table that train of thought for a later date.

Clemont couldn't help but feel relieved that Ash was still capable of smiling and he was shocked that he and Serena knew each other. However or whenever they met would be a fascinating story Clemont reckoned, but right now he was too busy smiling at Ash's infectious and rare moment of bliss; it was amazing he didn't smile and stay happy more because his happiness would be the light of the world one day, especially if it could make that much of an impact on the nerdy 14 year old inventor just with a simple smile.

"So Ash, you going to introduce us or what," Bonnie teased, unable to take the suspense anymore as Ash and Serena pulled apart with matching red faces, still unable to look away from each other even despite their embarrassment. "Um well I, guys this is Serena, she's my best friend from way back," Ash exclaimed in pure euphoria, unable to stop the uprising of positive emotions from leaking out of his impenetrable wall of indifference and negativity the more excited he got. This had to be one of the best surprises and turn-of-event moments of his entire life and frankly he was almost optimistic enough to believe that nothing could ruin this moment.

Serena's eyes widened upon locking eyes with Clemont and his little sister, the latter of who winked suggestively at her causing the older girl to blush uncontrollably. Ash meanwhile was on cloud nine and seemingly rising infinite levels above it into the most absurd heights of Heaven imaginable and unimaginable alike, planes of reality higher and more eternal than the endless heights of the Omega Omnisphere itself. Such was his bliss that he almost allowed his soul to bond to Serena's right then and there, almost, but then all of a sudden reality came crashing back down on him upon hearing a series of horrified screams echoing from outside.

"What the hell was that?!" Clemont swore as he suddenly grabbed hold of Bonnie instinctively. Ash meanwhile; was going into red alert mode as his aura senses detected a hostile presence, or rather a whole hostile army of men and women along with equally dark Pokemon. Worst of all was an impossibly powerful presence that gave off absolutely nothing, eerily absent in its seemingly infinite destructive capabilities, something his doppelganger from the 9 by 6 universe called an omni-locked presence, yet despite this thing somehow existing outside of all things in totality Ash could feel its malevolent aura drawing in the life force of those around it, especially his like some kind of all-powerful singularity. Like a totality consuming black hole. Clenching his fists with horrified fascination, Ash awaited the inevitable as darkness suddenly engulfed the city and a haughty female voice penetrated the blackness.

Ash could hear the Pokemon center doors sliding open as none other than the omni-locked presence strode right in as bold as brass, and a pretty, pink haired, cruel looking woman stood majestically in the half ajar Pokemon center entryway, her cruel red eyes fixated on Ash and his group of friends as Pikachu sparked his cheeks warningly at the new threat. Pointing at Ash, this woman singled him out in the crowd as the darkness cleared and Serena grabbed hold of Ash's hand upon realizing something horrible was about to happen.

"Ash Ketchum, I am Malva, the top admin of Team Flare; I am here to eliminate you before you can become a threat to our operations," she declared psychotically, as Clemont and Bonnie and even Serena stood in front of Ash protectively, refusing to cater to the whims of someone who was clearly insane and who, Ash noticed, wielded the power of mega evolution as she tossed a Pokeball into the air. A level infinity Houndoom immediately appeared in a flash of light, snarling at anybody who attempted to leave and leaving Ash and his friends in a very tight spot as Malva fixed her eyes lasciviously on the boy, having caught him off guard while he was reunited with the performer Serena and prepared to take advantage of his lapse in judgement. Ash's glare as he stared right back at her without a hint of fear was the mark of one who was truly powerful, and Malva knew she'd get a kick out of playing with him even as her grunts and fellow administrators dealt with the rest of the city, blocking off all the exits and keeping Officer Jenny and her police force otherwise preoccupied. The stage was set, and Malva had her prey right where she wanted him.

"Enough, what is it you want Malva?" Ash demanded, his voice capturing the attention of every hostage present as Nurse Joy tried to calm the situation by reassuring the many novice trainers who were staying their first night here and were scared shitless. Malva chortled sadistically, orgasmic-ally amused by Ash's query as she contemplated her answer. "I don't really want you specifically, but I know that you have a tendency to attract the attention of a certain _Aura Master_. He's who I'm after, so tell your vigilante friend the Aura Phoenix that I want a fight to the death with him. Every minute he doesn't show up innocent people will die in his name," Malva promised him as Ash's eyes narrowed dangerously and Serena and the others blanched in absolute horror.

Smiling darkly at her, Ash began to formulate a plan and created an illusion of himself as the Aura Phoenix, one that was moving about the Pokemon center at the speed of light and creating countless afterimages. "You don't want to play for those kinds of stakes with the Aura Phoenix; but I wish you luck in your endeavor Malva because you're going to need it. That said, you're going to have to play by his roles and be willing to play follow the leader," Ash declared with an air of theatricality as his afterimages slammed into Malva and Houndoom a couple of times before a boundlessly brilliant dome of rainbow colored lights and infinite spiritual power expanded out from the afterimages and engulfed the entire Pokemon center. By time the light cleared, Ash and everyone else in the entire Pokemon center was long gone, leaving Malva and Houndoom behind and mildly interested in the fact that her secret weapon hadn't affected him as much as she would've liked. Looking down at her cleavage, Malva pulled out the omnipotent relic hanging around her neck and smiled savagely before recalling Houndoom and walking back out the door whence she came; bloodlust over-saturating every fibre of her being and rendering her hell bent on eliminating the threat of the Aura Phoenix before it could even begin.

_Author's Note: And done, I know the chapter is somewhat short especially compared to my last one but alas, not all of my chapters have to be bloody monsters wouldn't you say? Besides, I did still manage to write 21 thousand words and that is impressive no matter what. Anyways mates, feel free to read, rate, and review, but keep the comments polite and civil. Don't like it don't read it, end of story. Omniarch is signing off now, good night to you all and be seeing you with my next installment._


End file.
